Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was a meeting scheduled for all the drivers in thirty minutes. None of them knew what it was about and Charles was slowly losing his mind. Sure, they had meetings together every now and then, but they usually knew in advance what they were about. Not knowing made Charles anxious.

‘Will you stop pacing,’ Carlos said from his spot on the couch. He was laying on his back, his phone in the air as he scrolled through his socials. ‘I’m sure it’s just a ‘have a happy holiday and behave’ speech, nothing to worry about.’

‘You didn’t see the looks the team gave me when I talked about my plans for the holiday, they know something Carlos, something is up,’ Charles said, fiddling with the bracelets on his wrist.

Carlos sighed and sat up, rubbing his face with his hands.

‘What would they have us do? Charles, mate, it’s summer break, they can’t make us do anything. I’m sure everything is fine and you will laugh about stressing about this tonight’

It turned out Carlos was wrong. They could make them do everything, and Charles was not laughing.

Thirty minutes later, all the drivers walked into the conference room one by one. Everyone was here, all the team bosses, all the managers, PR managers, and a lot of people from the FIA. It made alarm bells go off in Charles’ brain again and he could see multiple faces of concern around him as well.

Max for example, was frowning, Lewis looked grumpy and Lando confused.

‘I feel like a naughty school boy who got called to the principal's office,’ Pierre whispered as he sat down next to Charles. ‘I’m pretty sure it would have been just you and me then, and not everyone else as well. Okay, maybe Lando too.’

Charles rolled his eyes at his friend and tapped his fingers on his knee, he wanted everyone to hurry up so he knew what this was about and he could go home.

After what seemed like an eternity, Luke Skipper, their overall PR manager, and Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the president of the FIA, started the meeting. They welcomed everybody, gave a little speech about the first half of the season, and just when Charles thought Carlos had been right, they dropped the bomb.

‘We decided to organize a fun event for you all to raise money for World Child Cancer. It will not only be good publicity for us as the FIA, but also for your own image as that of your team,’ Luke told them cheerfully, the screen behind him showing a big image of the foundations logo and a sad looking kid in a hospital bed.

Charles felt like the child in the picture was put there to make them all more agreeable. He for one was all for doing things for charity, and seeing this kid made it impossible for him to say no, even when he didn’t know what they had to do yet.

‘We just want to start by saying that it’s not mandatory to participate, but it is strongly recommended. Remember that it’s not just your image you have to think about.’

‘Not mandatory, my ass,’ Pierre mumbled beside Charles. ‘They’re blackmailing us into saying yes.’

Charles hummed in agreement before focussing on Luke again.

‘You will be going on a fun little roadtrip in pairs of two, with no phone, limited money and just the name of your destination. Your car will have two cameras inside and you’ll also get a GoPro, all of these cameras will broadcast live to an app we developed especially for this.’ Luke said, before turning to Mohammed.

‘Don’t worry, you can turn the cameras off at any time for privacy. We do of course recommend to let it stay on as much as possible, more content means more donations. Your car will also have a tracker and an emergency button,’ Mohammed continued.

The two of them were beaming with excitement, everyone else however seemed not that impressed. It was pretty clear it was something the FIA had come up with, they were the ones who needed the publicity, who needed more sponsors probably. The teams were just forced to go along with it or blackmailed with promises of more money to spend.

‘And when will this, eh event, take place?’ Lewis asked from the front row when Mohammed fell silent.

‘Ah, excellent question, Lewis. We will send you on your way on Wednesday, so you still have some time to get your affairs in order,’ Luke replied, grinning.

Wednesday.

In two days.

Were they out of their minds? Did they think no one had made plans for summer break?

Everyone stayed silent for a few seconds, processing the information, before starting to talk all at once. The grin on Luke’s face faded. Good.

‘Calm down, please. We understand you have questions, let’s just talk them through one by one,’ Mohammed said into his microphone.

It took a few minutes before it got quiet enough again for him to continue and Charles felt like he was watching a movie, a TV program, like he wasn’t really here. Like this wasn’t about something he’d actually have to do.

Sure, a roadtrip with Carlos or Pierre, or Alex, sounded like a lot of fun, but he had plans already. He also wasn’t a big fan of there being cameras the entire time, even if he could turn them off when he wanted.

The first one to lift his hand for another question was Valtteri. ‘Where will we be driving to?’

The grin on Luke’s face returned and Charles sagged back into his chair. This was horrible, he really didn’t feel like driving for hours in a normal car while he was supposed to have some time off. He also felt like they still hadn’t told them everything, he didn’t trust the happy looks on Luke and Mohammed’s face at all.

‘You’ll get an envelope with the destination right before you get into your car. Everyone will have a different destination, but with the same distance, and every endpoint will be at a scenic location. You can decide to spend a few days relaxing once you’re there or you can fly back home,’ Mohammed said, smiling like he was delivering the best news ever.

‘So we can’t prepare at all?’ Esteban asked.

Mohammed shook his head. ‘No, that wouldn’t be fair. The goal is to get to your endpoint as fast as possible, the faster you get there, the more money the FIA and our sponsors will donate.’

Charles raised his hand and when Mohammed nodded at him, he cleared his throat. ‘Do the fans need to pay to watch our live streams?’

‘They’ll have to pay a small amount once to get access to the app, after that they can watch all the streams whenever they want.’

Charles nodded, satisfied. He had hoped it would be free, but he also understood there was a small fee.

More and more questions were asked. Everyone would get the same car and the same amount of money, how you chose to spend it was up to you. It wasn’t allowed to bring a phone, any kind of navigation besides a map or a credit card. The pairing would be drawn today, but the envelopes with destinations wouldn’t be given out until the morning they were leaving. You also couldn’t be paired with your teammate, but other than that you couldn’t trade. Charles thought that was a pretty stupid rule.

After what seemed like hours of getting information and Mohammed asking who wanted to join, it was finally time for Mohammed to draw the names. Some other guy from the FIA brought him a bowl with pieces of paper and everyone got really quiet.

Charles suddenly felt nervous and he could hear Pierre bouncing his leg next to him. He got along with pretty much everyone, but spending a few days with someone in a car was… Not intimate, but also not something he’d want to do with just everyone.

The first team that was announced were George and Daniel, the second Yuki and Valtteri and the third started with Pierre, who now stopped bouncing his leg and leaned forward in his chair.

‘And Carlos Sainz!’ Mohammed said cheerfully.

Pierre cursed and balled his fist, slapping his thigh in frustration.

‘You have got to be kidding me,’ he growled. ‘I can’t spend a couple of days in a car with him, Calamar, I can’t. We’ll kill each other?!’

Charles was about to reassure his friend that he would be fine with Carlos, that he would talk to his teammate, when his own name got called out.

‘Traveling with Charles will be… Max Verstappen!’

Of course it had to be Max fucking Verstappen. The universe liked to make Charles’ life difficult, he had known this already, but once again this proved Charles‘ luck.

‘Well fuck,’ Pierre let out. ‘Too bad we can’t trade, I’d much rather travel with Max.’

Charles didn’t reply. His ears were ringing as his eyes searched the room for Max, he didn’t hear the next few teams that were called out. Max was sitting two rows in front of him, next to Daniel, his shoulders looked tense. He probably wasn’t very happy with the news as well. They got along just fine and there was a mutual respect between them, but spending hours, days even, in a car together, just the two of them, wasn't something Charles really looked forward to. They’d never really been alone before either, there was always someone else with them. Would it be awkward? What would they even talk about?

Charles didn’t get much time to spiral, because Pierre elbowed his side.

‘Of course Esteban got lucky,’ he mumbled.

‘What?’ Charles asked dumbly, he had no idea what his friend was talking about.

‘Esteban got paired up with Lance, lucky bastards.’

‘Oh. Yeah, I guess so,’ Charles shrugged.

Mohammed continued talking, explaining more of how everything would work, but Charles couldn’t really focus anymore. He heard what the president of the FIA was saying, but the words wouldn’t register in his brain. All he could think about was that he was going to be spending almost 24/7 with Max Verstappen, for at least three to four days, and that was only if they didn’t get lost on the way.

Why couldn’t he have been lucky like Esteban? He would have much rather done the road trip with Pierre, Carlos or even Lando. While the latter was messy and chaotic and would probably drive him crazy after three hours or less, at least he wouldn’t boss Charles around and take control of the whole thing. He was pretty sure that’s what Max was going to do.

‘I really don’t get why we can’t choose our own teammate on this, or just go as the current teams on the grid. I’d much rather go with Este, than Carlos,’ Pierre said, one again interrupting Charles his thoughts.

‘Carlos is not that bad, you both just need to get over whatever feud you’re having,’ Charles sighed, looking at his friend.

‘But he’s so whiny,’ Pierre complained as he leaned back in his chair with a pout.

‘Like you are right now?’

That shut his friend up.

After Mohammed ended the meeting and told them to contact their teamboss with any other questions, most of the drivers left while others met up in a bar two blocks away. Usually Charles wasn’t really a fan of drinking in a bar, but he desperately needed a drink after this.

So that’s how Charles found himself squeezed in a booth with Pierre on one side, Lando on the other and George and Alex in front of them. Everyone but Lando had a beer in front of them and no one seemed really happy about their new summer break plans. Well, once again, everyone but Lando.

‘I’m actually looking forward to this roadtrip with Lewis, I think we’ll have a blast just driving and seeing pretty sights on the way,’ he said, sipping his Piña Colada.

‘I mean, I’m sure it will be fun, but I was supposed to be flying to Greece with Carmen tomorrow,’ George sighed, leaning his chin on his palm with a sad look on his face.

Alex nodded in agreement. ‘Lily and I also had a-’

‘Why the gloomy faces, people?’ A familiar and cheerful voice suddenly interrupted them.

Daniel was standing next to their table with a beer in his hand and his big signature smile on his face. ‘We’re going to have so much fun, Russell George,’ he winked before walking over to the bar where he joined Max, who was sitting at the bar by himself, sipping a bottle of Heineken.

Charles had noticed him right away, his eyes finding him every other minute and a small part in him wanted to ask him to join them, but he was going to be spending enough time with him soon and it wasn’t like they were really friends or anything. He probably liked spending his time alone anyways, Max never really seemed like a people person.

‘Are you going to be okay with Max?’ Alex asked.

‘Of course he is, Max is a good bloke,’ Lando immediately said, looking offended on Max's behalf.

George chuckled and patted Lando’s hand. ‘Calm down tiger, Alex didn’t mean he wasn’t.’

Lando frowned, but nodded before sipping his cocktail again.

‘I guess I will, I know he’s not the same as before and I think we get along just fine. I’m just-’ Charles shrugged. ‘It will be a lot of time together in a probably small space. What the hell will we talk about?’

Alex nodded in understanding while Lando raised his eyebrows.

‘You think too much,’ the Brit said then. ‘You don’t have to talk the entire time and if it feels awkward just talk about anything racing or ask about his sister or his nephews, he loves them.’

‘But I can only ask him once before it gets weird, I just feel like we’re very different, you know?’

Once again everyone but Lando nodded in agreement.

‘You’re not that different,’ he said, sipping his cocktail. ‘You’re both very passionate about the things you do, you care about family and your close friends, you’re not the biggest media fans but you’ll take time for your fans, especially the little ones, you can’t cook,’ Lando held up a finger with every new thing he said. ‘See, lots of things in common.’

Pierre finally spoke up then. ‘You know what, Lando is right.’

Lando brightened and straightened a bit at that, nodding happily.

‘I get that you’re a bit nervous, but it’s not like you hate each other. Max might be, err, blunt, but he’s an okay bloke like Lando put it, and you are very easy to get along with. You’re too nice even, which might annoy Max, so try and push back sometimes okay?’

This time even Lando agreed and Charles drowned his beer.

The next two days Charles tried to prepare for the trip. He packed and unpacked his suitcase multiple times, finding it very difficult to decide what to bring when he had no idea where he was going or how long he would be gone for. He bought some snacks and drinks for the road, not knowing if he was actually allowed to bring them. He stuffed things like painkillers, bug spray and a little first aid kit in his bag -you never knew- and probably packed way too many clothes.

Charles eyed the package of condoms and lube that laid on his bed, but decided against it in the end. When were they going to have time to meet other people or afford a night out anyways? He could get laid again after this trip.

Just when he wanted to close his suitcase, his eyes fell onto some old CDs on his shelf. Since they weren’t allowed a phone and they probably had to rely on the radio the entire trip for music, it couldn’t hurt to bring some. He grabbed some he thought Max would like as well, but he also packed some of his own favorites. Max would just have to deal or be smart enough to bring his own CDs.

Since the starting point of the trip was in Paris, at the headquarters of the FIA, Charles flew to Paris the evening before. Pierre had come with him and the two of them shared a hotel room.

‘Will you please, please, try and behave and not kill my teammate?’ Charles begged when Pierre moaned and groaned about the trip for what felt like the millionth time since they got on the plane.

‘I can’t make any promises, he needs to behave as well,’ Pierre grumbled, fumbling with his watch.

The two of them were in their beds already, watching some stupid reality show Pierre had put on.

Charles sighed and rubbed his face, getting tired of his friends whining. He got it, Pierre didn’t like Carlos, fine, but he didn’t need to keep reminding Charles.

‘Calamar, I love you, but you gotta stop this nonsense. Get. Over. It.’

Pierre snapped his head towards Charles, his mouth open, eyes wide.

‘Wow, I can’t believe it,’ he said, a grin slowly appearing on his face. ‘This is the attitude you need to give Max, he’ll love that. Well, the last part at least. I don’t think he’d appreciate it if you told him you love him.’

Charles groaned and covered his face with his arms.

‘Let’s just go to sleep, I can’t deal with you any longer,’ Charles said and he resolutely turned off the light next to his bed.

Pierre just laughed.

The next morning Charles and Pierre arrived at the headquarters with all their bags, just five minutes after the time they were supposed to be there. The parking lot was filled with people, cars and cameras.

‘Well, there we go,’ Charles mumbled as they walked to the group of drivers that were already there.

Charles spotted Max right away, he was chatting to Lando, his hands moving as he explained something to his friend, a single weekend bag sat on the floor next to his feet. Charles really hoped that wasn’t his only bag. He himself had a little suitcase, a weekend bag and a backpack, which was mostly filled with the roadtrip necessaries.

‘You ready?’ Carlos slided up next to Charles and Pierre, a relaxed smile on his face, but Charles could see the tension in his shoulders.

Pierre clenched and unclenched his fist before nodding at Carlos.

‘How about a truce?’ he suggested, extending his hand to Carlos.

Charles’ eyes widened, but Carlos smiled, the corner of his eyes crinkled.

‘I didn’t know we needed one, but sure, truce,’ he grasped Pierre’s hand and shook it.

The both of them seemed sincere and Charles was relieved when both his friends seemed to relax a little. Maybe this trip would be good for them.

‘Valtteri, my man, are you going camping?’ the familiar voice of Daniel called out behind them.

Charles turned around and watched as Valtteri approached the group wearing a big backpack on his back and one in his hands. It was clear he brought both a tent and a sleepingback as both were rolled up on top of the bags. How smart.

‘You never know, I’d rather sleep in a tent than in a car,’ Valtterri shrugged and Charles had to agree with him. He hoped they didn’t need a tent. Should he have thought of that?

He didn’t get much time to think about it as Mohammed called everyone together. They got another speech, some more instructions and a lot of encouragement to allow the cameras to film as much as possible. Every night they were supposed to call a number that would be in their envelopes to check in with someone from the FIA.

‘Don’t tell me all of this is yours?’

Max’ voice right next to his ear startled Charles. He jumped and almost let out an embarrassing squeak, but somehow he managed to keep the sound inside. Max’ lips curled up in a grin and Charles could feel his cheeks heat up while Pierre chuckled beside him.

‘What?’ Charles asked dumbly.

Max pointed at Charles’ bags. ‘Is this all you're bringing or will there be more?’

Oh so he was making fun of him now, well Charles could do the same. ‘You mean more than the four white t-shirts you brought?’

From the corner of his eyes Charles saw Pierre bite on his fist to not burst out in laughter and he smiled. He could do this. He could deal with Max, he could joke around.

Max blinked at him for a couple of seconds before his entire face lit up and he giggled. He giggled.

‘Good one, and I actually brought five t-shirts,’ Max replied, still smiling.

Was he serious? Charles hoped not.

He didn’t have time to ask Max as Luke had started to hand out the car keys and envelopes. Max accepted the key to their Seat Leon while Charles took the envelope. He looked around and noticed everyone was waiting to open theirs, so he did too.

‘Open it,’ Max urged and when Charles shook his head, he tried to grab the envelope out of his hands.

‘Nu uh, patience Verstappen,’ he laughed.

Max rolled his eyes, but crossed his arms and didn’t try to reach for the envelope again.

When everyone got the instructions to get to their vehicle, Charles followed Max to the row of cars. All of them were the same black Seats and each car had both an F1 as a World Child Cancer sticker on the side. When they got closer he could see that each car had the names of the two teammates on the doors as well.

Great, did they want them to stand out and be recognized all the time? It would probably help the donations, but Charles wasn’t too excited to have to deal with fans all the time.

As Mohammed had explained before, something Max obviously hadn’t heard, everyone was supposed to open their envelopes at the same time. The moment they did, the competition or event, whatever you wanted to name it, started.

The president of the FIA had a whistle in his hands and with one last smile, he blew it.

Charles opened the envelope, feeling strangely nervous as Max looked over his shoulder.

Charles Leclerc & Max Verstappen
Civitavecchia, Italy

‘That’s it?’ Charles turned the piece of paper around, but the back was blank.

There was another smaller envelope with cash and a paper with numbers and instructions, but nothing else. Just the destination and the address of what was probably a hotel.

Max cursed under his breath before pushing the keys into Charles’ hands.

‘Guess it’s a good thing I know how to read a map. You can drive first.’

@f1: Earlier this week we announced we’re doing something special to raise money for World Child Cancer. Today is the day our drivers got their cars and their destinations.

You will be able to follow your favorite drivers by downloading this app.

The teams and their destinations are as followed:

Daniel Ricciardo and George Russell - Pula, Croatia
Yuki Tsunoda and Valtteri Bottas - Ustka, Poland
Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz - Aalborg, Denmark
Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen - Civitavecchia, Italy
Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton - Balatonfüred, Hungary
Alex Albon and Oscar Piastri - Dénia, Spain
Fernando Alonso and Logan Sargeant - Kozjanso, Slovenia
Nico Hülkenberg and Zhou Guanyu - Ystad, Sweden
Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll - Žilina, Slovakia

Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen are the only two drivers who won’t participate in this event, both having responsibilities with their families.

We wish the teams good luck and safe travels.

Don’t forget to donate by clicking the link in our bio.

Who do you think is going to win? 🏁

Chapter Text

Two hours into the trip Charles already wanted to rip Max' head off.

Driving in Paris was already hard enough without someone next to you who kept commenting on your driving skills and ordering you what to do and what lane to drive in.

Max had a map open in his lap, but had mostly used the road signs to navigate Charles out of the city. He kept insisting it was better to follow the signs instead of the map, the map was for once they got out of the city. Charles' jaw already ached from clenching his teeth and his knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel.

The road was busy, people couldn't drive and according to Max, neither could Charles.

It was lovely. Simply, simply, lovely as Max would say. Instead it was really not.

Charles was in desperate need of some caffeine and a break, but so far it didn't seem like he was getting any of these soon.

'Keep right here, we need this exit,' Max said, leaning forward in his seat to read the signs. 'Yeah, I'm pretty sure this will get us onto the highway and out of this stinking city.'

Charles looked over his shoulder, turned on the indicatorblinker and just as he was about to switch lanes Max apparently changed his mind.

'Shit, no, we aren't allowed to go on the highways,' he yelled. 'Stay left, stay left.'

Charles cursed and quickly straightened the wheel and turned off his blinker. The car behind them honked and Max held up his middle finger in between the seats.

'Fucking Paris,' Max muttered before looking at Charles. 'Sorry, I forgot for a second.'

Charles blinked in surprise, it was the first time Max apologized during the drive.

'It's fine, so did I,' Charles said, giving Max a small smile before focussing on the road again.

His eyes went to the camera on his dashboard and he smiled at the lens as well. He kept forgetting they were being filmed and he really did not want to know what people were saying about the two of them right now.

When Charles looked at Max again, he was studying the map on his lap, a frown on his forehead as his finger followed the line of the road.

'I think I saw a sign with Guignes just now, we literally have to drive through there, so how about we follow that for now?' Max looked up again, and once again Charles was surprised.

The entire two hours before this Max had not asked Charles for his opinion once.

Charles nodded in agreement. 'That should be fine, maybe we should take a break there too.'

Max shrugged. 'Sure, if you need one.'

Charles gritted his teeth and decided not to respond and instead he reached for the volume button on the radio, turning it up. He hadn't had a chance to get his CDs out yet, so they just had the radio on for now, they were playing the current hits which was fine with Charles. Max seemed to agree as well, because it didn't take long before his fingers were tapping along with the beat on his thigh.

For the next few minutes Charles drove in silence and he slowly started to relax a little, his hands loosening around the steering wheel. The road got less busy as well now that they were getting further away from Paris and it felt like a breath of fresh air to not have so many cars all around him.

When Charles started to hum along to Vampire by Olivia Rodrigo, Max spoke up again.

'Of course you know this depressing sad song,' he mumbled, but the corners of his lips twitched like he was trying not to smile.

Charles just stuck out his tongue before softly singing along, his eyes focussed on the road ahead.

'Fame fucker, wow,' Max chuckled. 'You really listen to this crap?'

'Hey! This is not crap, you're the one with crap music taste,' Charles defended Olivia, glaring at Max for a second.

He happened to really like her songs and a lot of sad, slow songs really. They made him feel and he liked music that brought out his emotions. It was real and raw and he could appreciate that, unlike Max who probably preferred upbeat songs.

'Well I happen to listen to one of the best DJ's in the world a lot, and he does not make crap music,' Max shot back.

Charles laughed. 'You mean your friend Martijn? Is that the only music you listen too? Sure, he makes great songs, but you can't compare his music to the songs I like to listen to.'

'No you can't,' Max said before turning to look out of his window, where the scenery had changed from buildings and roads, to farmlands so large you couldn't see anything else than that.

Charles kept in his chuckle when Max ended their music discussion like that. He couldn't wait to get out his Adele CDs.

About twenty minutes later Charles parked the car beside a gas station. Their tank was still full enough so this would just be a 'stretch your legs and pee' break and maybe they'd switch places. The two of them got out of the car wordlessy and walked into the little shop side by side. Max went to cooling right away and grabbed a Red Bull, holding it up to Charles with a questioning look.

'You know we have limited money right?' Charles raised his eyebrows at Max. 'We probably shouldn't buy Red Bull if we want to save our money for food and a motel.'

'One Red Bulll won't hurt us, we'll buy cheaper energy at a grocery store later. Didn't you complain about needing caffeine before?' Max said as he reached inside the cooling to get a second can of Red Bull.

Charles sighed and shrugged before walking off to the bathrooms. He'd have to count the money they got once Max was driving, maybe they should make a list of what they spent so it would be easier to make it till the end of their roadtrip, however long that may be.

When they got back to the car, both of them with a can of Red Bull, Max got behind the wheel. Charles got comfortable in the passenger seat and turned on their cameras again. He smiled at the lens of the one closest to him and grabbed the envelope they got earlier, he was curious how much money they got. Maybe Luke or Mohammed had mentioned it this morning, but Charles had to admit he wasn't listening that carefully as he had been distracted by Pierre, Carlos and Max.

'Let's see what we got,' he mumbled, counting the money. 'How much money did you take out for the red bulls?'

'Ten and I have the change in my pocket,' Max replied as maneuvered the car back onto the road again.

'Okay we got five hundred and fifty euros in total. Apparently this should be enough for three to four days of gas, motels and food,' Charles told Max as he scanned the letter that came with the money. 'This says everyone has around fourteen hundred kilometers to drive, which according to the FIA should be doable in a maximum of four days.'

Max snorted. 'If we don't get lost, drive a minimum of eight hours a day and don't get any obstacles like traffic, construction work or car trouble.'

'Please don't jinx it,' Charles said. 'I don't wanna be in this car for longer than four days.'

'Jinx it?' Max laughed. 'Please tell me you're not superstitious.'

'I wear the same red pants every time before qualifying, what do you think?'

Max groaned. 'Oh, no, not those horrible red pants. I really don't get why you do that, it's not like it brought you that much luck this year so far.'

Charles blinked at Max' bluntness. He wasn't sure he should laugh or get annoyed at him for saying it. He might be right though, but he liked his little tradition of wearing them.

When Charles stayed silent, Max turned his head to look at him.

'Hey if it works for you, it works for you. Who am I to tell you to do differently?'

Jesus. This man just kept on surprising him today.

'Yeah you're only a two time champion, no biggie,' Charles shrugged, his lips curling up in a smile.

'You could be too if you weren't driving that red tractor of yours, if you had a Red Bull beneath your ass you would be right beside me on the podium every weekend, actually fighting me,' Max smirked, his eyes once again leaving the road for a second to meet Charles'.

What was up with this man? He wasn't flirting, was he?

Charles did notice Max always said nice things about him and his driving during interviews, he usually stood up for him and told the press how he enjoyed driving against Charles. It could be because he liked the challenge, the rush, but it could also be... No, it couldn't. Max wasn't into Charles, no matter what some of the fans thought. Charles had seen the edits on TikTok and Twitter, he'd seen the name the fans gave them, but he didn't believe them. Or maybe he didn't want to believe it.

Because why would it be true? He was just Charles, and Max was Max. Two time world champion, on his way to earning that title for a third time. He was confident, fearless in his car, didn't care what anyone thought of him and he wasn't afraid to tell people what was on his mind either. He was blunt and honest and Charles kind of envied him for it. He wished he could be like that too.

'What else is in the envelope?' Max asked, interrupting Charles' thoughts.

'Another piece of paper with all the rules, some important phone numbers and an old phone we can apparently use for our check in calls,' Charles said, taking out a gray flip phone.

Max pulled a face at the sight of the phone. 'I remember having one of these when I was like twelve, at the time they were really cool, seeing it now makes me feel old.'

'You're only twenty-five, that's not old' Charles chuckled. 'We're not the youngest on the grid anymore though, so there's that.'

'And I'm not sticking around as long as Fernando to be the oldest, I don't know how he does it,' Max replied as he took a sip of his Red Bull.

'Are you really planning on leaving Formula 1 in 2028?' Charles asked, he'd been curious about this for a while.

Max shrugged and didn't turn his head to look at Charles this time.

'I might, it all depends on the next few years really. For now I still really enjoy racing, but I know myself and in a few years it might not be all that exciting anymore, especially if they keep on adding things like the new sprint format,' he said, eyes on the road ahead.

'You don't like change?'

'I don't like change that doesn't make sense.'

Charles smiled. He agreed.

'Leclerc, what the fuck? Are you stupid or what?' Max yelled.

Charles winced a little. 'I'm sorry, I just- I really thought we were going the right way.'

'Well you thought wrong,' Max ripped the map out of Charles' hands and placed it against the steering wheel for a better look.

'You just said we had to go south,' Charles protested, trying to defend himself.

'Yes to Italy, not to fucking Spain!'

They had stopped on an abandoned little parking lot when Max started to doubt Charles' navigation, which turned out to be a good choice on Max's behalf, because thanks to Charles they ventured a lot more off the route then they should have.

Max groaned, probably because he saw just how much time they lost because of this. Because of Charles.

'I could really use a drink,' he said, still staring at the map.

Charles straightened in his seat, eying the camera on the dashboard for a second, wishing he could just turn them off. 'We're not getting a drink, we need to watch our money, we can't spend it all on day one because you want Red Bull and a glass of whatever wine or beer you're in the mood for,' he said, praying it wouldn't make Max more annoyed at him.

Max narrowed his eyes at him, his jaw clenched and hands balled into a fist on his thighs. 'Then we'll buy a bottle of cheap wine at the store, you owe me after your shitty navigation skills.'

Charles let his head fall back against the seat of the car and closed his eyes. He knew he fucked up, but he couldn't help his horrible sense of direction. It always had been like that and Max should have been more clear with his instructions, or just not trust him with the map. Maybe he should just draw out the route so this wouldn't happen again.

Charles was about to suggest this when Max opened the car door and got out.

'Where are you going?' Charles asked, but Max didn't reply. He just walked around the car, or stomped really, opened Charles his door and gestured for him to get out.

'Will you please get out of the car?' Max gritted out when Charles shook his head and stayed put. 'You can drive us to a supermarket and we'll figure out where to go from there.'

Charles sighed, unbuckled his seat belt and climbed over the console to get in the driver's seat. Max got in the passenger seat and didn't look at Charles as he adjusted the seat to his liking and started the car.

'Where to?' Charles asked as he slowly let the car reverse out of the parking spot.

'Jesus, I don't know, I'm not a GPS and they don't show grocery stores on this map,' Max barked out, glaring at Charles.

Gritting his teeth Charles stopped the car again, put it in neutral and turned sideways to look at Max.

'Don't act like this, Verstappen, I said I was sorry, get over it and let's just continue,' he said, trying to sound as confident as possible, Pierre's words from last night in his mind.

He had to push back, he would not let Max walk all over him when he felt like it. He understood why he was upset with him, Charles was annoyed with himself as well, but they had at least three more days to spend inside this car together. They needed to stay civil.

To his surprise Max' gaze softened and he sighed. 'You're right, I'm sorry. Let's just drive through this town, they ought to have a store somewhere.'

Charles nodded and maneuvered the car off the parking lot, glancing at Max every few seconds from the corner of his eyes.

Max sighed again. 'Stop looking at me, I'm sorry I snapped at you okay? We're good, I just get cranky after driving a normal car for so long with not enough Red Bull.'

Charles bit his lip, not sure what to say. He was surprised Max apologized again, but it was nice, he liked how Max was really trying. The entire day hadn't been as bad or awkward as he first thought, sure some moments could have been better, like the first two hours in Paris, but everyone's relationship got tested while driving in Paris.

'It's okay, I would be upset with me too if I were you.'

'Yeah well, it's not like we're used to driving anywhere without Google Maps these days. I used to navigate when my dad and I drove to the karting tracks, so I'm used to it. I take it you never did,' Max mumbled, Charles had to strain his ears to hear him.

Of course. Charles remembered Max usually traveled with just his dad, whereas he traveled with his entire family. His mom usually had a map in her lap as his dad drove and he played games with his brothers in the backseat. They had a very different childhood.

'I didn't,' Charles admitted. 'I wish I did though, it would come in handy, you never know when you might need the skills.'

Max chuckled. 'Right, like we'll ever get sent out like this again?'

Charles shrugged but laughed as well. 'Probably not, but our phones could die and while most cars have a navigation system in them now, what if they don't? What if you get stranded in the middle of nowhere and all you have is a map? I would be lost, I would probably freeze to death or something.'

'You're such a drama queen, you could just walk and hitch hike,' Max said, his lips curled up in a grin.

Charles liked him smiling. He looked a lot younger and carefree when he smiled.

It didn't take long for them to find a tiny grocery store. Charles insisted on going in together so Max wouldn't spend all their money and within five minutes they were back in the car with two bottles of wine, a six pack of water bottles, a package of bread and a jar of peanut butter.

'Should we have bought plastic knives?' Max asked as he put his seatbelt on. 'I don't know if every motel has cutlery.'

'I brought some from home, they're in my backpack,' Charles said, starting the car.

'Is that why you brought so much stuff, because you brought everything we might need?' Max teased, turning up the volume of the radio again and bopping his head along to the music.

Charles was seriously going to get a whiplash from Max' mood swings, but he was glad the other man seemed more cheerful again. Might be because he also sneaked in some cheap energy drink with their groceries, which Charles only saw after the cashier scanned it already.

After another hour of driving, the sky started to get darker and Charles' stomach started to rumble. He could have a sandwich with peanut butter, but they bought those for tomorrow morning and he really wanted some actual food and some sleep. The day had been long and exhausting and they still had a long trip ahead of them.

'Should we try and find a motel yet? Get some food for dinner?' Charles asked, turning his head to look at Max who was resting his head against the window, his eyes closed, but Charles knew he was awake.

'Already? We lost about two hours already thanks to your map reading skills,' Max replied, keeping his eyes shut.

'I'd much rather find a place to sleep and leave early tomorrow, or would you want to sleep in the car? We don't know where any motels are, what if we don't find one for miles?'

Max opened his eyes and stared at Charles for a moment. 'Do you always stress this much? Where's your sense of adventure?'

Charles was about to reply when he saw Max smiling at him. Oh, he was teasing him again.

'Relax, Charles, we will not be sleeping in this car,' Max said, sitting up straight again and grabbing the map from where it layed on the dashboard.

It was the first time this trip Max had actually said his name. It was usually Leclerc and even before the trip Max rarely said his name as casually as this. It was nice.

Max convinced Charles to keep driving until the next village and that they'd look for a motel there. Charles hadn't liked it, but luckily as soon as they reached the next town, he saw signs mentioning motels close by right away. He let out a relieved breath and didn't look at Max when he chuckled beside him.

'Take a right here,' Max said, pointing to the next exit.

Charles did just that and not even two minutes later he parked the car in front of a motel. Some of the lights in front of the building flickered and the parking lot looked pretty empty, but he saw some lights behind the curtains of a few rooms and the reception was still open. Max grabbed his bag from the backseat and got out of the car, walking towards the reception without waiting for Charles.

Charles quickly got his small suitcase out of the back of the car and hurried to catch up with Max. When they got inside of the building the first thing Charles noticed was the tiny dog on top of the counter. He was sleeping on a thick blanket, but lifted its head when they got closer to the reception desk. The light was very bright inside as well and Charles wondered if it was to help the receptionist stay awake at night.

'Good evening,' a small voice greeted them and a woman with bright red hair got up from her chair to smile brightly at them. 'How can I help you?'

'We'd like a room for the night please,' Max said, ignoring how the woman looked him up and down.

'The cheapest one you have, please,' Charles added, earning a glare from Max.

Did he still not get they were on a budget?

'Sure thing,' the woman smiled, fluttering her eyelashes at Charles now.

When Charles smiled at her, he could have sworn she puffed out her chest and pouted her lips a little. Max let out an inpatient sigh beside him and leaned across the counter in a slightly intimidating way.

'I have a wonderful room for only seventy-five euros,' the woman held up a key with the number thirty-three on it. 'Do you want to pay by card?'

Charles wondered if she recognized them, her eyes kept flicking between the two of them, her cheeks slightly pink.

'Cash please,' Charles said, taking the envelope with cash out of his back pocket.

The woman nodded and handed them a form to sign before accepting the money. Charles really wanted to tell her to keep the change, but he knew he couldn't, they probably needed every penny for themselves. It felt weird.

'Enjoy your stay and don't hesitate to ask me for anything you need,' the redhead smiled sweetly at Charles as she handed him the key, her fingers lingering on his.

Charles quickly pulled his hand away and muttered out a quiet 'thank you' before following Max into the much darker hallway that led to the rooms.

'That woman totally wanted you to jump across the counter and take her right there,' Max smirked, bumping his shoulder into Charles'.

'Jesus, Max, I'm sure that's not true. Did you not see her eyeing you?' Charles felt his cheeks heat up.

'I did, she probably wouldn't say no to a threesome.'

Charles nearly choked on his own spit and stumbled a little in his next step. Did he really just say that? Stay cool Charles, stay cool.

It wasn't like Charles would want a threesome with Max, he never thought about it before now at least, but he was bi, and the thought of sharing a bed with both a man and a woman did sound interesting to him.

'And that's something you'd be up for?' Charles asked, his voice sounded strange, but Max didn't seem to notice as he got to a halt before room thirty-three.

'Well, it is something that's still on my bucket list,' Max shrugged like he was telling Charles the weather.

Max opened the door to their room then and the both of them shuffled inside, feeling the wall for the light switch.

'Who doesn't put the light switch next to the door,' Max grumbled, just as Charles' fingers found the switch.

The light flickered a few times before it turned on fully, showing them a small but tidy room with only one bed.

'You have got to be kidding me.'

Chapter Text

Charles woke up with a pounding head, his neck aching from the weird angle he slept in, and a dry mouth that made him desperate enough to open one eye to see if there was anything to drink closeby.

When the small motel room came into view however, he suddenly remembered where he was and why he felt like this. Charles groaned and closed his eyes again, wishing he was in his own comfortable bed right now and not on a crappy motel bed. Unfortunately life didn’t work that way and he got sucked back into reality when there was movement next to him.

Right there, not a few inches away from Charles, was Max Verstappen, and he was still sleeping. His blonde hair was sticking up to the pillow and his mouth was a little open, soft snores escaping his throat. He looked so peaceful when he slept and Charles couldn’t help but stare, to really look at him. His eyes raked over Max’s face and lingered on the mole on the top of his lips, he noticed it before of course, but he never got to stare like this without it getting weird.

Max stirred and Charles quickly turned around, facing the empty bottle of wine on the nightstand, the reason for his headache. He closed his eyes again and thought back of last night, how Max had opened the bottle of wine while stepping inside the room and taking a long swig before offering it to Charles.

‘If we’re going to be sleeping in one bed, we’re going to need a drink, Leclerc,’ he had said, handing him the bottle.

They ended up drinking both the bottles they bought, probably not their smartest idea, but at least the night ended with them being much more comfortable with each other. Charles remembered his heart almost beating out of his chest when Max had started to lean his shoulder against his more and more, until his head dropped against his too, his eyes half closed and tired. It was the closest they had ever been.

It had felt nice to talk casually with Max, to not talk about racing, but about their families, about their hopes and dreams for the future, about whether or not Max was going to adopt another cat. Charles had liked it, and he really hoped this night would make the rest of the trip easier on them.

A groan interrupted Charles’ thoughts and the bed creaked when Max got up beside him, groaning again, louder this time. Charles could hear the pat of his bare feet on the floor and it didn’t take long before he was met with the view of Max’s bare muscled back as he walked to the bathroom. He quickly closed his eyes when Max reached the door, just in case he would look back at Charles and would catch him staring.

When he heard the door close and the shower being turned on, he opened his eyes again and slowly got up. The clock on the wall opposite of him told him it was already nine in the morning, which meant they wasted precious time on the road already, again.

Charles rubbed his eyes as he shuffled over to his suitcase. He hoped Max would hurry up with his shower so they could get on the road as soon as possible, and hopefully not take a detour like yesterday.

He was ready to get in the bathroom when Max came out, they almost bumped into each other with the hallway being so small.

Max’s eyes widened when he saw Charles standing there, his hands flew to the towel around his hips. ‘Eh, morning,’ Max mumbled before quickly walking by Charles.

‘Morning,’ Charles said over his shoulder, slipping into the bathroom and not waiting for another reply.

He would not admit to himself or anyone else how the sight of a freshly showered Max, droplets of water still clinging to his chest, had affected him.

After breakfast, which consisted of sandwiches with peanut butter, the two of them got back to the car. Max got behind the wheel first, giving Charles a chance to sober up a little more as he sipped from one of the cheap energy cans Max had gotten yesterday.

‘How do you think the others are doing?’ Charles asked Max after half an hour of mostly silence.

He felt sorry for the people watching them right now, but he also was not going to keep talking non stop just because fans were watching and donating.

‘Some of them will probably be well on their way, others will be even further back than us. I don’t think all the teams are a good match, some are bound to create a lot of chaos, which to be fair would be fun to watch.’

Charles nodded in agreement. ‘I would kill to be a fly on Pierre and Carlos’ windscreen right now. I sincerely hope they haven’t killed each other yet.’

Max raised an eyebrow at Charles. ‘Why?’

‘Why? Have you not noticed the tension and hostility between them the last few races?’

Max shrugged and Charles sighed. Of course he hadn’t.

‘Okay how about this, who do you think could win this?’ Charles asked.

Max stayed silent for a while, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.

‘Either Valtteri and Yuki or Alex and Oscar. Valtteri seemed very prepared for anything, and the latter are both very calm and level headed, they may have a good chance.’

Charles hummed in agreement, he could definitely see either of those two teams get to their destination fast.

‘Valtteri will have to be patient with Yuki though, I think Alex and Oscar are more likely to set the best time and win this thing.’

‘Jesus, this fucker really doesn’t know how to drive,’ Max growled, honking at the car in front of them before overtaking him on a way too narrow road.

Charles nearly let out a scream when the wheels of the car got on the grass beside the road and they slipped a little. He grabbed onto the side of his seat and glared at Max.

‘What exactly are we winning? I know they said they’d donate even more money in our name, but I still don’t really get why they couldn’t just ask us to make a donation,’ Max said, like nothing had happened.

Charles took a deep breath, choosing not to say anything about Max’ action on the road just now. He did not feel like getting into a discussion about safe driving with Max.

‘I’m not sure, but it will probably be something extremely stupid. I guess the donation to the good cause is enough for me though, what could we win that we don’t already have anyways.’

‘That sounds so…,’ Max snorted. ‘Entitled?

Charles rolled his eyes and looked at Max.

‘What would you want then? Another trophy to add to your collection? Hear the dutch anthem? Maybe have Lando break your trophy, you know the usual.’

Max laughed and shook his head, glancing at Charles, his blue eyes bright and sparkling.

‘No, I was thinking more like.. I don’t know actually, I just, I don’t get why they make us do this instead of spending time with the kids that are sick. We could be out there making some of their dreams or wishes come true, instead of being stuck in a car for four days.’

Charles felt his heart warm at that. He knew Max was secretly more soft than he let on, especially with kids, but this, he really had a point here.

‘I agree, we could be taking some kids to Disney World or have them sit in one of our cars, have them meet their celebrity crush, or whatever kids these days dream of.’

‘We still could,’ Max shrugged, eyeing the camera on the dashboard. ‘I’m sure we can set something up when we get back.’

Charles nodded in agreement and got a notebook out of his bag to write down some ideas. Max made some more suggestions and Charles hoped that because of the people seeing the stream, the ball would get rolling and maybe his team could work on setting this up already. He made a mental note to mention it in their phone call to the FIA tonight.

‘Do I really need to listen to this again?’ Max groaned, pulling a disgusted face when Charles put his Adele CD into the disk player again.

It was his second turn to drive for the day and he had loved every minute of torturing Max with his favorite music a few hours ago, so of course he was going to do it again.

‘Yup,’ Charles said cheerfully, plopping the p. ‘Driver picks the music…’

‘Shotgun, something something,’ Max finished, rolling his eyes.

‘Shotgun shuts his cakehole,’ Charles corrected. ‘I can’t believe you’ve never seen Supernatural.’

‘I can’t believe you have,’ Max shot back, sipping his third energy drink of the day.

‘My ex liked the show and it’s actually really fun,’ Charles shrugged. ‘You might like it too, it has humor and you know what, you actually remind me of one of the characters a bit.’

‘Whatever,’ Max mumbled, turning down the volume of Someone like you.

‘You’re not curious?’ Charles tried to bait Max, but of course it didn’t work.

‘Nope, now just shut up and drive, it’s bad enough that I have to listen to this whiney song.’

Charles once again wisely bit his tongue, but he did turn up the volume and hummed along to the music.

By the time it was Max’s turn to drive again he was jittery, which Charles blamed the energy drink for and Max the Adele CD, he could not keep his entire body still, either his leg was bouncing or his fingers were moving on his thigh and he kept biting his lip.

‘Maybe we should stop for a bit, so you can walk it off,’ Charles suggested, parking the car on the side of the road.

‘I’m fine,’ Max waved it away as he got out of the car and walked around to the driver's seat.

Charles sighed and climbed over the console again so Max could get in. Somehow they kept changing positions like this with Max always being the one to walk around the car.

‘Are you sure?’ Charles asked again as he buckled up.

Max opened up the car window, removed the Adele CD from the disk player and without even glancing at Charles he threw the CD out of the window. The disk hit the road with a soft clatter and before Charles even had a chance to react Max pushed the throttle and drove away, a small smile on his face.

‘Now I’m sure.’

About an hour later, Max wasn’t so sure anymore and neither was Charles.

‘You said you kne-’

‘Shut up, Charles.’

‘I will not, we’re lost, we’re in the middle of nowhere and it’s getting dark,’ Charles exclaimed.

Just after the whole CD fiasco Max had assured Charles he knew a short cut and could get them back on track with the missed time from yesterday. Charles, stupidly trusting Max’s sense of direction and didn’t question him. He should have.

‘We’re not lost,’ Max said stubbornly, his face blank and his hands tightening around the steering wheel.

Charles crossed his arms and stared ahead, at the looming trees before them and the abandoned road. They hadn’t seen another car for at least forty minutes and they were definitely in the middle of a forest, the road getting smaller and bumpier by the second.

‘Then what do you call it?’

‘We’re not lost,’ Max repeated through gritted teeth.

Charles sighed and rubbed his eyes. He was tired, hungry and in desperate need of a hot bath.

‘Let’s just pull over somewhere safe and look at the map again,’ he suggested. ‘And if we can’t figure it out we should turn around and go back.’

‘No,’ Max barked out. ‘We’re not turning back, we’ll lose even more time.’

‘Then pull over at least.’

When Max didn’t respond, Charles wanted to pull out his hair. His own, but also Max’s for being so stubborn.

‘Pull over,’ Charles repeated, his voice louder this time.

To his surprise, Max did pull over then, but he didn’t say anything, he just stared ahead, glaring at the road in front of them like it was the road’s fault to get them lost.

Charles sighed, opened the door and got out with the map and a flashlight. He placed the map on the hood of the car and tried to figure out what went wrong, where they were. It didn’t take long for Max to get out as well and he quietly took the flashlight out of Charles’s hands so he could look at the map better.

‘I think we took a wrong turn here,’ he mumbled after a while, his finger lingering on a spot on the map. ‘This road leads through the forest while the one we were supposed to take, only passes by it.’

‘So we can just continue on this road?’ Charles asked carefully, the map still looked like abracadabra to him.

‘I think so,’ Max nodded. ‘Let’s get going, we’re losing daylight.’

They both got back into the car again and continued the road in silence. Charles glanced at Max every so often, but his face was blank and his eyes focused on the road ahead. The trees around them seemed to thicken the further they got and it didn’t last very long before it was pitch black all around them, the only light being the headlights of the car. Charles didn’t like it one bit.

He didn’t dare ask Max again if he was sure they were taking the right road. They had to drive slowly now, a mere twenty miles per hour, because of the bad sight and the bumpy narrow road. It would be nearly impossible for another car to pass them right now and Charles hoped they wouldn’t have too. On the other hand, another car meant people they could ask for directions.

‘We’re not lost,’ Max broke the silence, glancing at Charles.

‘I didn’t say anything,’ Charles mumbled, playing with the bracelets on his wrist.

‘No, but you’re fidgeting and getting nervous. We’ll be fine, we just need to get out of this damned forest.’

‘I’m not sure we will, not in the dark, you can barely see anything. How do you even know where we are or if we haven’t missed a turn?’ Charles asked, admitting what he’d been thinking for the last few minutes.

‘I don’t,’ Max replied. ‘I’m just hoping this is one road that will eventually lead us out of this.’

Charles blinked a few times, processing what Max just said.

‘What? So we could be getting even farther away? I-’ Charles shook his head in disbelief. ‘Maybe we should just stop for the day, wait for it to get light again so we can actually figure out where we are.’

‘And what, sleep in the car?’ Max snorted. ‘I thought you didn’t want that.’

‘Well, we don’t have much of a choice do we? And I’d much rather sleep in the car then get even more lost. What if we’re just driving further into the heart of the forest?’

‘Are you scared?’

‘Max!’

Charles could almost feel Max rolling his eyes at him, but he didn’t care. It would be insane to keep driving right now.

‘Fine, if I find a spot where I can safely park we’ll stop,’ Max said then and Charles let out a sigh of relief.

‘Thank you.’

Luckily they drove past a clearing pretty soon after that, they almost missed it because of the darkness around them, but Charles’ eyes still caught it. Max parked the car and turned off the engine, turning to Charles.

‘Now what?’ he asked.

Charles turned on the flashlight and hung it on the rearview mirror, creating a weird light in the car, but it was better than total darkness.

‘Now we eat dinner and try and get comfortable to get a few hours of sleep,’ Charles said, searching around in his backpack for the bread and peanut butter he still had in there.

He also found a bar of snickers and a bottle of apple juice that he had smuggled with him from home. He stalled it all out on the dashboard and handed Max a plastic knife.

‘Well, bon appetit I guess,’ he chuckled.

‘You know, this reminds me of my karting days,’ Max said as opened the jar of peanut butter. ‘We used to camp a lot, my dad and I, and we usually had bread for dinner as well.’

‘Yeah, us too, but it was never bread with peanut butter,’ Charles laughed, accepting the jar from Max. ‘Usually it was with hamburgers or hot dogs, which sounds so good to me right now.’

Max made a humming noise as he chewed.

The ringing of a phone made the both of them jump and Charles had to dig to the bottom of his backpack to dig the fliphone out. So far they only used it yesterday for their check-in call and they were supposed to do so again today.

‘Hello?’ Charles answered the phone.

‘Charles?’ The voice of Christian Horner sounded far away. ‘Are you two okay?’

‘Yes and yes, we’re just a little lost,’ Charles replied, grinning at Max.

‘We’re not lost,’ Max yelled to the phone.

‘Good to know, we were worried when the tracker in your car kept disappearing and then appearing again,’ Christian said, his words fading every few seconds.

‘We’re in the middle of a forest, I think the reception is just really bad,’ Charles explained.

There was no response.

‘Hello?’ Charles pulled the phone away from his ear to look at the screen.

The call was disconnected and there were zero bars of reception shown on the screen.

‘Guess we’re pretty deep in the forest,’ Charles mumbled, putting the phone away and taking another bite of his sandwich.

‘Should we try and make some space in the back to sleep, or do you wanna sleep on your seat?’ Max asked, whipping his hands on his shorts, completely ignoring what Charles said.

‘Uh, sure,’ Charles replied, glancing at the back of the car.

If they pressed the backs of the seats down and placed their luggage on the front seats, they should have plenty of space to lay down.

The both of them got to work after eating another sandwich, moving their stuff around and trying to make the back of the car as comfortable as possible. Charles used one of his hoodies as a makeshift pillow and another to lay upon, that only left him without anything for a blanket, but he remembered then he brought a beach towel in his suitcase.

Max was already laying down, a hoodie as a pillow and nothing else.

‘We– we can share the towel if you want,’ Charles offered, turning it sideways so it would be big enough to cover both of their upper bodies.

They slept in one bed last night, this wasn’t so different, it was just a bit uncomfortable.

‘I’m good,’ Max said, leaning up to turn off the flashlight, enveloping them in darkness. ‘Thank you, though.’

Charles nodded even though he was sure Max couldn’t see him. The moon was only half full and while it gave a tiny bit of light, it wasn’t enough to see much but dark shapes.

They were silent again and Charles turned on his side, tugging the towel around him in an attempt to get comfortable. He listened to Max’s breathing for a while and closed his eyes, praying the both of them could get a few hours of sleep and not feel like a car ran over them once they woke up. At least they wouldn’t be hungover tomorrow.

‘Good night, Charles,’ Max said, breaking the silence.

Charles smiled, burrowing further into his hoodie.

‘Good night, Max.’

Chapter Text

It was still dark when Charles woke up. His whole body ached and he was shivering under the beach towel he had used as a blanket, apparently it had cooled down quite a bit since they went to sleep. He could hear Max snoring quietly beside him and instinctively scooted closer a little, sighing when his bare arm met Max’s warm one. How on earth was his skin still warm?

Charles got as close to Max as he could without alerting the other men, hopefully. He gently pressed the right side of his body against Max’s left side and hoped that maybe some of Max’s warmth would seep through to him. He closed his eyes again, pulled the towel up till his nose and tried to stop shivering as he focused on relaxing his muscles.

Somehow he fell asleep again because when he woke up the next time it started to get a little lighter outside and he felt a lot less cold. In fact, his back felt nice and warm and he instinctively nestled further against it, but froze when something tickled against his neck.

Charles’ senses were suddenly on full alert and he now heard the soft snoring close to his ear, felt hair tickle the back of his neck and a warm strong arm was wrapped around his waist, fingers clinging on his t-shirt.

It was Max. Max had cuddled against his back in his sleep.

One of his legs was also intertwined with Charles’ and he didn’t dare move or breathe too loud, afraid it would wake the other man up, would make him scurry away from Charles in a hurry. His entire body felt like it was on fire and he was very aware of all the places they touched, his heart galloped in his chest and he tried to focus on his breathing. He needed to relax, it wasn’t like Max wrapped around him on purpose, that would be crazy, he probably just sought out warmth like Charles had done earlier.

Slowly Charles relaxed his muscles and tried to enjoy the warmth of Max’s body. He closed his eyes again and listened to Max’s breathing, to his snores, to the birds that started whistling outside, and just as he started to drift back into sleep, Max stirred and groaned.

Charles kept his breathing slow, his limbs loose and pretended to sleep as Max seemed to wake up too. The fingers on his t-shirt loosened as did the grip on his waist, but Max’s arm stayed where it was. There was no more snoring and Charles was pretty sure Max realized their position as his body went taut for a moment, like Charles’ had done earlier, but then to his surprise, Max relaxed again and nuzzled his cheek against Charles’ shoulder.

He didn’t get away from him like something had burned him, he didn’t remove his leg from between Charles’. He seemed to be very content with the position they were in and it confused Charles to no end.

Why? Why would he not move away? Why did he cuddle further into Charles’ back? Was it because he didn’t want to wake him up? Was it because he enjoyed the warmth? Because that was the reason Charles had stayed put. It was just… Not something Charles had expected from Max.

Max just kept on surprising him on this trip and they were only on day three today. Charles wondered what else the Dutchman would do that would surprise him, and how they were going to feel about each other when the trip was over. Would they be better friends? He hoped so, because even though Max could annoy the heck out of him, he also found he liked him a lot. There was always this respect for him, but he never really got the chance to see who Max actually is, and this trip had already given him quite a good insight.

Apparently Charles had fallen asleep again because when he woke up for the third time, the sun was shining and Max wasn’t behind him anymore.

‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ Max sighed, about two hours after Charles had climbed behind the wheel again to drive them out of this forest.

He hadn’t said anything to Max about how they cuddled up for warmth that night, and neither had Max, the both of them just pretended it didn’t happen and that was fine with Charles. They had however, both complained about their back and neck hurting.

Unfortunately Charles had a bigger issue right now.

‘I’m not,’ Charles squeaked out, a little embarrassed by how panicked he sounded.

‘Pull over there, I might be able to get it out,’ Max said, pointing to a little parking lot further along the road.

Charles did just that and as soon as the car was turned off, he got out and fell to his knees so he could check his hair in the side mirror.

‘You’re so dramatic, it’s not the worst thing in the world,’ Max said as he walked around the car to check the damage to Charles' hair.

Charles just glared at him and turned his head to look at the white piece of gum stuck in his hair. He licked his thumb and index finger and carefully tried to loosen it from the stands of hair. It didn’t work. A low whine left his throat and he looked at Max with pleading eyes, not sure what to say or ask.

‘Calm down, let me have a look,’ Max got closer and licked his fingers just like Charles had. ‘How the hell did you get gum stuck in your hair anyways? How old are you, five?’ he mumbled as he gently tried to get the gum out.

‘I was trying to flick it out of the window, the wind did the rest,’ Charles groaned.

Max’s fingers disappeared from his hair and he raised his eyebrows at him. ‘Didn’t think you’d be one of these people to throw gum on the streets, do you have any idea how long it takes to decompose?’

‘I usually don’t, guess I wasn’t thinking.’

‘Well, karma did this to you, that’s for sure,’ Max smiled and Charles wanted to cry.

It was silly, but he felt so stupid. Max was right, he shouldn’t have thrown out his gum, he should have just found a piece of paper or kept it in his mouth till the next stop. It didn’t matter it made him slightly nauseous to chew on gum which had lost its flavor, it was never okay to throw it on the streets, and he couldn’t remember the last time he had done it.

‘Relax, Charles, I’ll fix it,’ Max said softly, squeezing his shoulder once before opening the car door and diving inside to look for something. ‘If there’s one thing I learned from having nephews and a little sister, it’s tricks like this.’

When Max held up the jar of peanut butter, Charles pulled a face, making Max laugh.

‘Yep, your hair is going to stink and so will the car probably, but at least it will get the gum out.’

‘Fine,’ Charles mumbled.

‘I’m the one getting my hands dirty, Charles, you should be thanking me for saving your precious hair. Now stand still,’ Max ordered, dipping one of his fingers in the peanut butter.

Charles made another face and vowed to not eat peanut butter again this trip.

‘Thanks, Max.’

‘Can we stop soon?’ Charles asked Max carefully, not looking at him as he did so.

‘If you say you need to pee, again, I’m going to scream,’ Max said, clearly annoyed with Charles’ tiny bladder.

Charles didn’t blame him, he himself also hated his bladder and how often it tricked him into thinking he had to pee. Sometimes it wasn’t even worth the stop, but the feeling wouldn’t go away until he went, so he usually gave in.

‘I’m sorry,’ Charles just said, confirming to Max it was indeed his bladder again.

Max groaned and looked at him. ‘How in the hell is your bladder not trained with how much time we spent in our cars and the stimulators?’

‘No idea,’ Charles shrugged, and he really didn’t know.

Some days were worse than others though and he knew it annoyed the heck out of his team as well.

‘Fine, we’ll stop, but I’m getting us another Red Bull,’ Max shot him a glare that told Charles not to argue. ‘We can share one, if you want.’

Share it? Did he really hear that correctly? Max wanted to share a Red Bull with him? Wanted him to drink from the same can as, wanted to put his lips somewhere Charles’ had been?

Yet another surprise. Charles always thought sharing a drink was pretty intimate and he only did it with the people he trusted, mostly because it also was a very easy way to get sick. He remembered how Lorenzo got Mono by drinking out of the same water bottle as his friend’s at summer camp; three out of the five ended up getting the so-called kissing disease. Sometimes Charles wondered if his brother was lying about the water bottle and had actually kissed his friends.

‘Ehm, sure,’ Charles mumbled.

He really hoped Max wasn’t carrying some kind of virus, but buying only one Red Bull at a gas station would really save them some money.

They stopped about ten minutes later and Charles hurried towards the bathrooms while Max went into the shop.

‘You’re Charles Leclerc,’ a small voice said behind him when he was just putting his dick back into his pants.

Really? When he was peeing?

Charles put on a smile, zipped his pants closed and turned around. Behind him were two boys around the age of eight and ten and they stared at him with open mouths, a blush on their cheeks.

‘I am,’ Charles replied, smiling more genuinely now, especially when he saw one of the boys was wearing a Ferrari hat.

The boys just gaped at him, obviously starstruck at meeting him unexpectedly in a gas station's bathroom.

‘Do you want me to sign that?’ Charles offered, gesturing to the boy’s hat with his fingers.

That seemed to do the trick.

‘Would you?’ the boy grinned up at him and took off his hat.

‘Sure, let me wash my hands and we can find a pen or a marker okay?’ Charles suggested.

The two boys nodded and waited patiently before following him outside. The smaller one ran ahead to a car where a woman was already waiting, her eyes widening when she noticed Charles.

From the corner of his eyes Charles saw Max leaning against their black Seat, Red Bull in his hands as his head was tipped up to enjoy the sunshine on his face, he hadn’t seen Charles yet. He looked good, handsome, beautiful even with the glow of the sun on his blonde hair.

Charles’ eyes widened at the thought and quickly shook it away, focussing on the boys who were frantically searching for anything he could sign the hat with.

‘I can’t find anything,’ the youngest said, his bottom lip quivering as he got out of the car and looked up at his mom.

‘I’m sorry baby, I can go see if they sell any markers inside, but you’d have to ask Mister Leclerc if he’s not in a hurry first,’ the mom told her son, caressing his cheek.

Shit. He actually was, they were on borrowed time as it was, especially with him having to pee every hour or so. Maybe he had a marker in his backpack, he usually kept one in about every bag he carried with him, for occasions like this. He hated disappointing his fans.

‘Why don’t you walk with me to my car, I might have something in my bag,’ he said and the boy's eyes lit up.

With the boys and their mom in tow he walked towards Max, praying he wouldn’t be too annoyed with Charles for letting him wait and then bringing fans over.

‘Took you long enough,’ Max frowned when he noticed Charles, but his face softened when he spotted the kids.

‘Max Verstappen,’ the oldest of the two breathed out in awe. ‘This is the best day of my life.’

Charles smiled and dove into the car to look for a marker while Max leaned down to speak to the boys and shake their hands. He always loved how good Max was with kids, how he got so much softer, more patient.

‘Got it,’ Charles exclaimed, climbing out of the car again where the youngest boy was waiting for him, the cap in his hands and a huge smile on his face.

‘What’s your name?’ Charles asked him as he took the cap and signed it.

‘Toby and that’s Caleb,’ the boy nodded at his brother who was listening intently to Max telling him a story about something.

‘Well, it’s very nice to meet you Toby,’ Charles smiled, ruffling the boy’s hair.

‘Would it be okay for me to take a picture of you two with the boys?’ the mom asked, holding her phone up.

Charles glanced at Max, who in his turn raised his eyebrows in question at him, before the both of them nodded at the same time.

‘Sure,’ Max said.

Toby and Caleb squeezed in between them and Charles leaned down a little, wrapping his arm around the boys. Max did the same and their fingers touched for a moment, sending tingles up Charles’ arms.

What the hell was wrong with him today?

Their gazes met and Charles could swear Max’s eyes had darkened a little, he had no idea if that was good or bad, but there also seemed to be a light blush on his cheeks. Did Max feel that too just now?

‘Smile!’

Charles quickly looked forward and smiled at the camera, shoving away the weird feeling. He was probably just making all of this up, that’s what happened with little sleep and being in each other’s company for over fifty hours already.

It was probably nothing, maybe he was just a little touch starved.

Yeah, that must be it.

‘Why do you smell like peanut butter?’ Toby asked, looking up at Charles with questioning eyes.

Charles blinked at the boy, his mind catching up, as Max burst into laughter, his eyes twinkling as he leaned forward to whisper something to the boys.

‘Oh, that’s awful,’ Caleb said while Toby giggled along with Max. ‘It happened to me too last year and Mom had to shave my head.’ He still looked sad about it.

‘Well, lucky for me, Super Max here, saved my hair.’

Chapter Text

It was already getting dark when Charles parked the car in front of a motel. It was a bigger one than their first night and he hoped they had a cheap room for them, because even though they slept in the car last night, he had a feeling they spent their money way too fast.

‘I can’t wait to get into the shower,’ Charles said, turning off the car. ‘I’m not eating any peanut butter for the next few months, that’s for sure.’

Max chuckled and opened his car door.

‘Me either and I love peanut butter, but being in that smell for the entire day,’ Max pulled a face. ‘I’m throwing out all the jars in my cabinet when I get back home.’

‘But what if you get gum stuck in your hair?’ Charles grinned. ‘I’m glad you didn’t have to shave my hair off like Caleb had to do.’

‘Those boys were adorable, did they really approach you while you had your dick out?’

Charles choked on his own spit and coughed a few times, his face heating up while Max chuckled beside him.

‘Jesus, Charles, you act like you have never heard anyone say the word dick out loud before.’

‘I have,’ Charles protested. ‘There was just… Some spit going the wrong way.’

‘Sure,’ Max hummed, pushing open the door that led into the motel.

They were greeted in Italian and to Charles’ surprise Max started chatting with the receptionist in German before Charles could even get out a word of Italian. When he got closer to the desk he saw the woman wore a nametag with three different flags, meaning she spoke Italian, German and English.

He knew Max spoke the language, but it was weird to hear him speak something other than English or Dutch. While Dutch was familiar to German, it still sounded different. He wondered what they were talking about and why Max didn’t just talk to her in English.

‘Do you approve of a room for fifty five euros, oh master of our money?’ Max asked him, looking over his shoulder at Charles with a teasing glint in his eyes.

The receptionist giggled and batted her eyelashes at Max. She was clearly impressed by him, whether it was his looks or the fact that he could speak German, Charles didn’t know, nor did he care.

‘Sure, as long as I can shower,’ Charles replied, smiling stiffly at the woman, who still hadn’t taken her eyes off of Max.

Max got the envelope of cash out of the backpocket of his jeans and winked at the woman as he handed her the bills. He winked. What the fuck? Sometimes Charles really didn’t get Max, one moment he seemed to hate being around people and now he was flirting with this woman, who wasn’t even his type.

Charles looked at his nails and played with his bracelets as Max filled out a form and got the keys of their room.

‘We have to share a bed again,’ Max informed him as he turned around to Charles. ‘I hope you don’t mind.’

Charles' heart skipped a beat and he tried really hard not to react, so he shrugged and started walking towards the hallway where the sign he saw earlier said that the rooms were.

‘It’s not like we didn’t sleep next to each other the last two nights,’ he shrugged, like he didn’t care at all.

‘That’s what I thought too,’ Max said, walking past him to take the lead. ‘We have room thirteen, let’s hope it doesn’t bring us bad luck.’

Charles rolled his eyes. ‘I might be superstitious with some things, but I’m not scared of the number thirteen.’

‘Good, because we can use some good luck, can’t we?’

Charles was enjoying his long awaited shower, his muscles relaxing a little the longer the hot water touched his back and his shoulders. He let his head hang forward and closed his eyes, just breathing for a moment.

Ever since waking up with Max against his body last night he had been on edge, feeling things he never had before. He wondered if it was the same for Max or if he was as unbothered by it as he looked. Charles knew Max was good at pretending though, he knew Max pretended to be fine a lot when they were younger, even though he wasn’t.

It took Charles a long time to figure out that the Max he thought he knew didn't exist, that it was all fake, a mask, a protection shield of sorts. It took getting into F1 together for Charles to see Max turning into the Max he now knew, the one he liked a lot better. Sure he respected him in their kartings days too, but this Max, the Max of today, that one was his favorite. He not only respected him for his skills and honesty, he also genuinely liked him as a person now.

Today Max once again showed how sweet and soft he actually was, both by helping Charles with his hair and how he handled Toby and Caleb. It did funny things to Charles’ brain, to his stomach, it made things flutter. It also didn’t help that now that they spend so much time together, Charles could actually appreciate how handsome Max was, how beautiful his blue eyes were, how much he liked his raspy voice with the lisp that he found adorable somehow.

Charles threw his head back and let the hot water fall down on his face. His heart was beating faster in his chest and when he let his hands slide down his chest he was soon met with his now rock hard dick. He hissed as he wrapped his fingers around his shaft and slowly started moving them.

‘Hey Charles?’ Max’ voice suddenly sounded at the other side of the bathroom door.

Charles cursed under his breath and dropped his hand, letting his head fall back against the cold tiles of the small shower.

‘What?’ He yelled, grabbing the bottle of body wash.

Max started telling him something, but it was hard to hear what exactly he was saying as he talked way too fast and not loud enough for all the words to carry through the door. Charles continued to wash his body and tried not to moan when his hand brushed his dick as he cleaned his body.

Hearing Max’s voice didn’t help either and while Charles wasn’t ready to accept that he found Max attractive, his dick had no problem showing him just how much.

Charles took a deep breath and was just about to yell at Max. He had no idea what he just said, when Max opened the bathroom door and peeked his head inside. Charles could tell because even though the steam covered the glass of the shower door, he could still see his stiluete.

‘Did you hear what I just said?’ Max asked.

‘I did not, now close that goddamn door Verstappen. Can’t a man shower in peace? You can tell me later.’ Charles growled, closing his eyes in annoyance.

His dick twitched against his stomach and he wanted to glare at it for betraying him. Lucky for him, Max couldn’t see it though, or so he hoped.

‘Jesus, someone is in a mood,’ Max laughed before getting out like Charles said, closing the door behind him.

Charles let out a relieved sigh and closed his fingers around his dick again, he really needed some release.

‘What the hell was so important you had to barge into the bathroom for?’ Charles asked as he walked into the room in just his sweatpants, his towel still in his hands as he dried his hair with it.

Max was on the bed typing something on his phone and he looked up when Charles walked in. His eyes raked Charles’ half naked form and Charles smiled when they lingered on his abs.

‘My eyes are up here, Verstappen,’ he teased, throwing the towel on the only chair in the room.

Max rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to his phone. ‘We’re invited to a party tonight, so I hope you brought your pretty clothes.’

Charles blinked at him, wondering if he was joking or not.

‘Are you serious?’ he asked when Max didn’t look up at him again.

Max hummed and typed something else on his phone before he threw it next to him on the bed. ‘I went outside to grab something from the car and some guys recognized me and invited us. They have watched our stream and thought we could use some free food and alcohol for the night,’ Max grinned. ‘There’s nothing about not accepting food and drinks from strangers in the rules, I checked.’

‘Isn’t it a common rule though?’ Charles chuckled, grabbing a t-shirt from his suitcase. ‘Never accept food from strangers, I mean.’

‘As a kid, sure, as an adult? Okay, yes, maybe then too, but I told them we would come if they’d donate money to the cause and we could film some of it for our stream,’ Max said, puffing his chest out a little like he just did something really important.

It was cute and Charles found himself staring at the other man as he smiled at Charles. His cheeks were a little red, probably from excitement, and his blue eyes seemed to shine as well.

‘Fine, I guess we can go then,’ Charles agreed, turning around to his suitcase again so he had something else to focus on. For show he moved some clothes around like he was looking for something.

‘Glad you approve, I would have gone without you if you didn’t though,’ Max laughed. ‘I’m taking a shower too, we should probably leave after.’

Half an hour later Charles followed Max outside to get one of their cameras out of the car. He hated to admit it, but he felt a little nervous about this party. He had no idea what kind of people Max had met and what exactly he was getting himself into.

‘Hey, can I ask you something?’ Charles quickened his step a little so he was walking beside Max.

‘If it’s about why I’m wearing a white t-shirt, then no.’

Charles snorted. ‘It’s not, even though I did wonder why you asked me to wear something nice when all you brought with yo-’

Max glared at him and Charles stopped talking while he watched Max lean into the car. The movement made his shirt ride up a bit and showed Charles a strip of smooth pale skin.

‘I like my white t-shirts, now please ask your question so I can turn on this camera and be awkward,’ Max said as he closed the door of the car and locked it.

Charles blinked at him and tried to remember what he wanted to ask Max before.

‘Oh ehm, I was wondering why you talked to the receptionist in German earlier?’

Max raised his eyebrows at him. ‘Why? Did you feel left out?’

Charles frowned and looked away from Max. ‘No, but you could have spoken in English.’

‘And you could have talked to her in Italian, I don’t see your point,’ Max shrugged. ‘I didn’t really have a reason for it, I saw the German flag on her nametag and it just happened.’

‘Okay,’ Charles just said, he didn’t feel like digging for a better answer.

Maybe Max just thought the woman was attractive and wanted to show off, it made sense if he didn’t want to share that with him right? Maybe she was coming to this party too.

Charles sighed and gestured to the camera in Max’s hands.

‘Let’s turn this thing on and get to the party, shall we.’

Max nodded in agreement and raised his arm with the camera so the both of them could fit in the frame.

‘Hello everyone,’ Max greeted the people watching, before looking at Charles.

Charles shook his head a little as he laughed, of course Max had not thought about what to say beforehand.

‘Hi guys, guess what? We’re supposedly going to a party and decided to take you along,’ Charles said cheerfully.

He was such a good actor.

‘Lead the way Verstappen,’ Charles said when Max didn’t say anything else.

He reached up to take the camera from Max’s hand, having to stand on his tiptoes to get it, even though Max was basically the same height as him. He fell back against Max’s chest when he closed his hands around the camera and Max steadied him easily with one hand on his hip before stepping away from him.

Charles cleared his throat and smiled at the lens again.

‘Max thought it was a nice idea to give you guys some more content while we try and convince the people at this party to donate to World Child Cancer, which you should do as well if you haven’t already.’

Charles kept talking to the invisible people watching him, chatting about nothing really, as he followed Max to the other side of the motel. They could already hear music coming out of the open door and when they nearly reached it, two guys stepped outside, grinning widely when they spotted Max and then Charles behind him.

Charles stopped talking to the camera to shake their hands and introduce himself. Three more people came outside then, two girls and another guy who was so tall Charles had to strain his neck to look him in the eye. They whispered to one another in a very familiar language that Charles didn’t understand and it soon became clear to him they were German. Great.

He wondered if this is how Carlos felt when he switched to French.

‘Do you guys want to introduce yourselves?’ Charles asked the group, turning the camera so they could wave at the lens.

Everyone said a little something and Charles tried to remember all their names. The girls were Lina and Tilly, but he already forgot two of the guy’s names and he thought the tall one said his name was Stefan.

‘We’ve been watching your stream since the moment you left Paris,’ Tilly smiled at Charles. ‘It’s been so fun to watch you bicker and also get closer.’

‘Eh, thanks?’ Charles said, not sure how to respond to that.

Tilly chuckled and motioned for him to follow her inside. The room was much bigger than the one Charles and Max were sharing, it had a large blue couch in the corner, a dinner table with six chairs, a pretty big flatscreen tv and there were three doors leading to other rooms.

There was a tablet on the table where Charles could see himself and Lina, who was standing beside him and into the view of the camera he was holding.

‘That’s so weird,’ he chuckled. ‘Have you been watching some of the others as well?’

Tilly nodded. ‘We sometimes use Lina’s tablet to watch the others, Pierre and Carlos mostly, but we also like to put on George and Daniel or Valterri and Yuki.’

‘They haven’t killed each other yet in case you were wondering,’ Lina said before Charles could ask about his best friend and his teammate.

‘But they did have a pretty rough journey so far, Carlos even got out of the car at one point and walked for like a mile before Pierre could convince him to get back into the car,’ Tilly continued, tapping on the screen of her tablet.

Charles disappeared from the screen and instead he saw a lot of tiny video previews to choose from. Tilly’s long purple nail clicked on one in the middle and within seconds Charles could see his best friend behind the steering wheel, muttering something under his breath.

‘Did he forget his razor blades,’ Charles joked when he noticed the beard his friend was growing.

‘I think Carlos said he thought it was ugly, so he refuses to shave now?’ Lina giggled. ‘While you and Max bicker like a married couple, Carlos and Pierre are more like a divorced couple.’

Charles blinked at the girls and tried really hard not to blush. They were acting like a married couple?

Luckily before the girls could elaborate, Max and the guys stepped inside as well.

‘I have someone named Chris from the FIA on the phone,’ Max said, making a face, as he walked towards Charles. ‘He’s saying that we’re not allowed to hang out with other people.’

‘I did not say that, I said you’re not allowed to ask them for directions or use their phones or other electronics. It’s unfair to the other’s,’ a voice said over the speakerphone.

The man sounded annoyed and Max rolled his eyes.

‘We haven’t and we have our camera here with us, we’re helping with the donations, that’s the point of this isn’t it? There’s nothing in the rules about this, I checked,’ Max grumbled.

‘We can keep the camera on tonight until we get back to our room?’ Charles suggested. ‘That way you can see we’re not cheating.’

‘Fine, but don’t-,’ Chris started saying but Max interrupted him.

‘There’s nothing about accepting food or drinks from strangers in the rules either and we’ll be good boys, I promise. Now can we please go on with our evening and have some fun?’

Charles bit his lip not to laugh while Tilly and Lina started giggling beside him.

Chris sighed loudly. ‘Fine, just keep the phone with you.’

Max agreed and closed the flip phone with a loud slap, not letting Chris say anything else.

‘Huh, that’s such a great way to hang up the phone,’ he grinned, looking at the small phone in his hand.

Everyone chuckled and then the music got louder and someone pressed a beer in Charles’ hand.

Charles was already a bit tipsy when one of the guys, not Stefan, proposed an idea to get people to donate more money.

‘What if we promise the people something when you reach a certain amount of money raised?’

‘You can see how much is being raised?’ Charles asked at the same time as Max asked; ‘Like what?’

‘Yes we can and I don’t know, it’s too bad there’s not like a chat so people can suggest things,’ the same guy said, Charles really wished he could remember his name.

‘We can use my twitter account, the people that are watching can send me what they want you to do?’ Tilly suggested, already opening the app on her phone. ‘Everyone tweet your challenges to @tillyxo97’

‘I’m not sure this is the best idea,’ Charles hesitated, he wasn’t particularly excited about their loving but slightly crazy fans sending in weird stuff for them to do.

‘What, are you scared, Leclerc? Can’t handle a little challenge?’ Max grinned, taking another sip of his beer.

Charles narrowed his eyes at him. ‘Fine, but only because it’s for a good cause.’

The group cheered and Max smiled so wide, Charles already felt like he won.

Lina and Stefan went to sit by Tilly’s side and looked over her shoulder at the tweets that were coming in, gasping and giggling every few seconds. Charles really hoped he wouldn’t regret agreeing to this.

‘Okay, let’s start off easy shall we,’ Tilly said. ‘How much money do we need to raise in order for you two to do a handstand?

Charles shared a look with Max.

‘Let’s say five hundred? Or is that too much?’ Charles offered, he really had no idea how many people were watching their stream.

Lina smiled sweetly at him. ‘That’s fine, Charles, there are over twelve thousand people watching right now and the numbers are rising as we speak.’

Charles’ mouth dropped open. That were a lot of people, didn’t they have something better to do than watch him and Max?

‘Thomas, will you please get the boys another drink,’ Lina asked the guy that was sitting next to Max, finally letting Charles know the guy’s name. ‘They’re going to be thirsty after doing these challenges, we’re already at seven hundred, get up boys, show us what you got.’

Charles groaned and got to his feet, he luckily knew he could do a handstand and quite well if he was being honest. Andrea used it in their training sometimes.

‘Ready?’ Max asked, smirking at Charles.

Charles nodded and after counting down from three, the two of them got onto their hands. Charles could feel his t-shirt sliding down to his chin, but for once he didn’t care, he wanted to stay on his hands longer than Max, he wanted this to be an actual challenge and he wanted to win.

The group was cheering them on and Charles could hear Max grunt next to him. From the corner of his eyes he could see Max was still upside down, his big hands flexed on the floor as he moved a bit, trying to stay up longer. Charles was doing the same thing. His arms were burning and he felt his balance slipping, but he wasn’t giving up yet.

‘Look at their muscles,’ Lina screeched. ‘The people are getting what they paid for alright.’

Just as Charles thought he would lose, Max fell over, knocking against Charles’ side and making him lose his balance too. The two fell into a heap on the floor, panting and laughing.

‘I win,’ Charles stuck his tongue out at Max.

‘Sure, babe,’ Max winked.

Babe.

Charles’ eyes widened and Max smirked at him as he jumped to his feet, holding out his hand. Charles accepted, allowing Max to wrap his fingers around Charles’s wrist to pull him up. His fingers were long and warm, and fuck they encircled Charles entire wrist with space to spare. How the hell were his fingers so long?

Lina ran towards them and threw her arms around both of them.

‘That was amazing! I shouldn’t have expected less from two top athletes, also did you know it does amazing things for your arms?’

She wrapped her fingers around Charles’ bicep and squeezed, giggling, before looking up at Max, who was also staring at Charles’ arm.

‘He looks good, doesn’t he?’ she said, tucking her red locks behind her ear as she smiled sweetly.

She did that a lot, Charles noticed, yet he didn’t get the idea she was flirting with them.

‘Lina, get your butt over,’ Tilly shouted from the couch. ‘Boys, what will it take to do the macarena?’

Max groaned and Charles laughed, throwing his head back.

Oh this was going to be fun.

A thousand euros later and the familiar sounds of the macarena echoed through the room. Tilly and Lina had joined them in front of the camera and were already shaking their hips.

Charles looked at Max and his breath hitched when he saw him staring at him already, instead of at the girls. His blue eyes seemed to darken, his cheeks were flushed and he had a little smile on his lips.

At the same time they put their arms out in front of them and started the dance, never losing eye contact until it was time for the hip action and jumping to face the other side. Charles giggled and continued the dance until he was facing Max again.

He would never admit it out loud, but it was the most fun he’d had in a while, dancing the macarena with Max and their new friends. He felt loose and happy, and it was wonderful.

At the end of the song his stomach hurt from laughing and he was thirsty, just like Tilly had predicted.

‘You got moves,’ Charles grinned up at Max as he grabbed his beer from the table and took a few big sips.

He hadn’t expected Max to have such loose hips, to have so much fun dancing a silly dance like the macarena.

‘It’s the alcohol,’ Max shrugged, but then he grinned back at Charles.

It was really unfair how good he looked when smiling fully like this. His whole face just lit up.

It was also unfair of Charles’ brain to confuse him with thoughts like this. Every day he spent with Max, added more thoughts, more confusion, more feeling and he wasn’t sure what to do with them. He knew he liked men, but he could not go falling for Max. Right? It would really complicate things.

Besides, Max would never feel the same for him. He had a beautiful model girlfriend too, why would he even look at Charles twice? Although, he had tonight, hadn't he? Charles noticed how his eyes had lingered multiple times now, but that could just be the alcohol.

‘Oh oh oh, we have another fun one!’ Stefan yelled from behind Tilly’s phone. ‘How do you feel about singing a Taylor Swift song?’

Tilly and Lina squealed, Thomas groaned and the last mystery dude just smiled. Charles really needed to focus on names more, it was annoying not knowing someone’s name.

‘I’m sure Max doesn’t know any Taylor song,’ Charles said, hoping to get out of singing.

Max sat his empty beer bottle on the table and started humming the melody of

You Belong With Me.

Charles mouth dropped open in shock.

‘You don’t know Adele, but you know Taylor Swift?’

‘I have two sisters, Charles, they’re obsessed with her,’ Max grinned

‘As they should,’ Tilly nodded in agreement. ‘So how much to sing?’

‘Two thousand,’ Charles grumbled, taking Lina’s wine glass out of her hand to take a big sip.

‘We have tequila too,’ Lina grinned. ‘If you need more liquid courage.’

‘God no, no tequila, we need to drive tomorrow remember? Beer and wine only gives me a headache, tequila… That’s something different.’

‘We got to meet up again after your road trip and do tequila shots, I want to meet a proper drunk Charles,’ Lina said, grabbing her glass back.

‘You and me both, now come on Charles let’s sing,’ Max said, holding out his hand for Charles again.

What in the hell was happening?

‘Who are you and what have you done with Max Verstappen?’ Charles joked, placing his hand in Max’s for the second time that night.

‘Shhhh, I’m having fun, don’t ruin it,’ Max smiled, pulling Charles with him.

Was this the real Max? Or was this drunk Max? Or maybe a little bit of both. Charles really wanted to find out, because he liked this carefree happy Max.

Tilly had looked up an instrumental version of the song and before Charles knew it they were singing. The beginning was a little bit out of time and stiff, their voices cracking and giggles interrupting the words, but then they got into it. Charles was sure it sounded awful, even if Max actually had a pretty nice voice.

If you could see that I'm the one

Who understands you

Been here all along

So, why can't you see?

You belong with me

Max looked at Charles and placed a hand on his heart, singing to him, or that’s what it looked like and Charles could almost feel his heart skip a beat. His skin tingled and he felt really hot all of a sudden as he stumbled over the next few lines of the song.

Why did he have to look at him like that? Like he meant the words? Like he wanted Charles to belong to him.

When the song ended, Tilly and Lina jumped to their feet to clap and cheer at them, but Charles barely noticed, his eyes still on Max’s.

‘Told you I knew the song,’ Max said then, smirking, but his neck was flushed and his eyes dropped to Charles’ lips so fast Charles wasn’t sure if he imagined it.

‘We have another one and this could raise some real money, the only question is, are you up for it?’ Stefan smirked from behind Tilly’s phone, wiggling his eyebrows.

Oh no.

‘What is it?’ Max asked, finally looking away.

‘They want you two to kiss.’

Chapter Text

'They want us to do what?’ Charles gaped at Stefan, not entirely sure if he heard him correctly.

Surely they weren’t serious. There was no way they were doing that, no way Max would agree, and not to mention, it would be an absolute nightmare for their PR teams. It simply wasn’t an option, no matter how much money people would donate.

‘You heard me,’ Stefan grinned. ‘The people want you to kiss.’

‘Absolutely not,’ Charles said, shaking his head. ‘We’ll do something else.’

Max was awfully quiet, and when Charles looked at him he was surprised to see that Max was already staring at him, a thoughtful look on his face as his eyes flicked to Charles’ mouth for just a second.

‘You’re not seriously thinking-,’ Charles started to say, he could feel his heart thumping rapidly in his chest at the idea of kissing Max, or Max actually thinking about agreeing to kiss him.

Was this even real? Was he dreaming?

‘Shut up, I got this,’ Max muttered before his lips curled up in a big confident grin. ‘We’ll do it.’

Charles’ eyes widened and while the boys cheered, Tilly and Lina didn’t seem to be happy about the idea. The latter opened her mouth but Charles beat her to it.

‘What– You can’t just agree for the both of us,’ Charles argued, trying to ignore the tingles at the base of his spine, the blood rushing to his cheeks -and maybe even to his dick-.

‘What’s one little kiss,’ Max shrugged, winking at the camera. ‘We can kiss, right Charles?’

Charles took a step back as if he was hit, he didn’t like it one bit how nonchalant Max was making it seem. What was happening? Why was Max doing this?

He crossed his arms and glared at Max.

‘What if I don’t want to kiss you?’

Max took a step forward and reached out his hand to touch Charles’ arm, but Charles took another step back, restoring the distance between them.

He was not going to kiss Max in front of a camera and no one would be able to change his mind. Screw the donations, he’d transfer money to the foundation himself.

‘Will you please trust me?’ Max asked when he tried to take a step closer to Charles once again. The pleading look in his eyes made Charles decide to stay put this time, and he allowed Max to lean forward.

‘I won’t kiss your lips, I promise,’ Max whispered in his ear, his hot breath tickling against the sensitive skin there.

He said it so quietly that Charles hoped he heard him correctly. Max’s words made his whole body heat up and when Max leaned back again to look at him with his eyebrows raised in question, he nodded.

Max’ face lit up and he grabbed Charles’ arm to pull him in front of the camera again.

‘He agrees, now if we can get another ten thousand euros I will kiss Charles Leclerc and then we’ll call it a night,’ Max said, wrapping his arm around Charles’ waist.

Tilly got up from her seat on the couch, hesitating for a moment before striding over to them.

‘Are you sure about this?’ she whispered, her eyes glancing between the two of them.

‘Yes, trust me,’ Max repeated, smiling at the redheaded girl. ‘I had a thought and while some people might not like it, that’s not our problem.’

Tilly’s eyes widened and Charles could see the moment she seemed to understand what Max was up to. Of course Charles himself still had no clue what that was and he huffed in irritation.

‘Oh, Max Verstappen, I like the way your mind works,’ Tilly grinned. ‘Well, carry on then,’ and with that the girl turned around and skipped back to the couch, her long red hair swishing across her back.

‘We’re halfway already,’ Thomas yelled. ‘Get ready boys!’

Charles felt nervous, he had no idea what Max was up to, but he also couldn’t help but trust him, especially after Tilly seemed to agree with him. He knew he only met the young woman tonight, but it felt like he had known her for ages and he somehow trusted her judgment.

‘Relax,’ Max said softly, tapping Charles’ arm with his fingertips. ‘It’ll be fine, I promise.’

‘You better be sure about this, you know what our fans are like right?’

‘Yes and they will love what I’ll give them, it’s more than they ever got and they will go insane.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Once again, I have two sisters,’

‘What about our male fans?’

Max shrugged. ‘Some will love it, others will hate it, who cares.’

‘I care,’ Charles muttered.

Max smiled at him. ‘I know, I like that about you.’

Charles’ breath caught in his throat and he nearly swallowed his tongue. It wasn’t that he was really surprised, it was just, well, he was surprised Max said it out loud.

‘So you like me, huh?’ Charles said, trying to play it cool.

He wondered if Max could hear how fast his heart was beating. He felt like one of those cartoon characters when you saw their heart beating so fast it came out of their chest. It was silly really how much Max was affecting his heartbeat, and he couldn’t remember if it had always been like this or if it had been a recent development.

‘Hmhm, never said I didn’t,’ Max hummed, his eyes scanning Charles’ face.

‘Almost there,’ Stefan yelled, but his voice sounded far away.

Charles fumbled with the hem of his t-shirt, his eyes focussing on the mole on Max’s top lip for a moment before quickly looking away.

‘You’re not nervous are you?’ Max teased, bringing his hand up to gently grip Charles’ chin with two fingers,

Charles licked his lips and tried really hard to focus on his breathing, to stay calm, to stay unbothered by all of this.

‘No,’ he said, but it came out croaked.

Max chuckled and glanced at their new friends and the camera that was on the table. He took another step closer to Charles, their chests almost touching and he moved his fingers to the back of Charles’ neck, squeezing softly.

‘Relax,’ Max said, his minty breath that had a slight beer smell to it as well, hit Charles’ nose as he slowly started to lean in, waiting on Stefan to yell that they reached their target.

‘You’re really making a show of this,’ Charles mumbled. ‘Are you enjoying this?’

‘Maybe a little,’ Max admitted. ‘Now close your eyes.’

As soon as Charles did as he was told, Stefan and Thomas started to chant.

‘Kiss, kiss, kiss.’

Charles held his breath and waited for Max to make his next move, to either kiss him or not kiss him, whatever that meant. He had said he wouldn’t kiss his lips, but there were plenty of other places he could kiss Charles. Unless he was lying to get Charles to agree.

Max gently turned Charles’ head and before Charles could think any more of it, he kissed him.

On his cheek.

Soft warm lips pressed against his cheek for a few seconds before disappearing again, leaving a funny tingling sensation.

Charles slowly opened his eyes again and watched how Stefan and Thomas protested loudly while Tilly and Lina smiled at them. He heard them, but he also didn’t, something was roaring in his ear, in his heart, and it was loud.

It wasn’t the first time someone had kissed Charles’ cheek, hell people kissed his cheeks all the time in greeting, but none of them had ever made him feel like this. None of them had made his palms sweat or made his legs feel like jelly.

‘Breathe,’ Max whispered close to his ear and Charles gasped for air.

He hadn’t realized he had actually held his breath this whole time.

Charles swayed a little on his unsteady legs, but Max was quick to steady him with a hand on his hip, which wasn’t helping the roaring in his ears.

What the fuck was happening to him?

He was being silly, wasn't he?

It must be because of the forced proximity, because of this tension that had been between them, it was just his body tricking him. It had to be. He could not actually be attracted to Max. He could not actually want to kiss him. Could he?

When Charles finally snapped back to the real world, he caught the last words of what Thomas was saying.

‘... a real kiss. You cheated.’

‘No, I didn’t. No one specified where or how we had to kiss,’ Max simply said while he shrugged. ‘I kissed Charles, we had a little moment, the fans probably went nuts. Hell I think I’ll have PR on my ass any moment now, calling to our flip phone.’

We had a little moment.

Was Charles really being the only one affected? Was this all one big game to Max? It probably was.

‘Excuse me,’ he mumbled, getting out of Max’s hold and rushing out of the camera’s frame and towards the bathroom.

‘Charles?’ Tilly called after him, but he ignored her and locked himself in the hideous green motel bathroom.

He leaned against the door and took a deep breath, and then another, willing himself to slow his heartbeat, his breathing, the shaking of his fingers.

‘I’m so stupid,’ he whispered, closing his eyes. ‘Stupid, stupid, stupid.’

He shouldn’t have drank all that alcohol, he shouldn’t have agreed to this game of challenges, he shouldn’t have–.

A soft knock on the door made him freeze.

‘Charles?’

It was Max.

Why had he followed him? He would have thought Tilly may come and check on him in a while, not Max.

Was he going to gloat? Tease him? Laugh at him? He must have sensed Charles’ reaction to him, Max wasn’t stupid.

Why was that man so hard to read sometimes?

One moment he seemed genuine, the other so unbothered and Charles couldn’t tell if he was just joking or not. If it was his blunt dutch side being honest or if he was being sarcastic.

‘Charles, open the door,’ Max knocked again.

‘No,’ Charles replied stubbornly. ‘Leave me alone.’

‘Charles, come on, I just want to know if you’re okay.’

‘I’m fine.’

‘If you were, you would open the door.’

‘Why, so you can laugh in my face?’

Max fell silent and Charles opened his eyes.

‘Why would I laugh?’ Max’ voice sounded gentle, genuine.

Charles sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, debating if he was going to reply or not.

‘Will you please just open the door?’

‘I- I’d rather not,’ Charles said honestly.

He really just wanted to sink to the floor and sit here for a while. Brooding. He also wanted to get into bed, hide under the covers and sleep for ten hours, forgetting this ever happened.

‘Please,’ Max begged.

Did he just? Beg?

Charles groaned quietly and turned around to unlock the door. As soon as he did, Max pulled the door open and slipped inside, closing and locking the door behind him again.

What the-

Max rushed forward and backed Charles up against the wall at the other side of the ugly bathroom. His hand came up to rest on the tiles on either side of Charles’ head, caging him in.

‘What are you doing?’ Charles asked bewildered, his heartbeat picking up again.

Max said nothing at first, his eyes sweeping over Charles’ face, his cheeks flushed.

‘Max?’

‘You didn’t think I’d kiss you in front of that camera, did you?’ Max asked after a while.

Charles frowned in confusion. ‘No? And I’m glad you didn’t.’

Max’ lips curled up and he almost smiled, it looked sad though.

‘If I kiss you, especially the first time, it will be in private and when you tell me you want me to.’

He made it sound like he had wanted to actually kiss Charles, but in private, like he was still planning to.

‘I– What?’ Charles said dumbly, trying to wrap his brain around what was happening.

Max really smiled this time, his hand moved to cup Charles’s cheek and his thumb caresses Charles’ bottom lip.

‘All you have to do is ask.’

Was he for real? Did he mean that? Any time or just now? Question after question appeared in Charles’ mind as he stared into Max’ blue eyes.

‘I do?’

Max nodded and leaned a little closer to him, his breath fanning against Charles’ open lips.

‘Are you drunk?’ Charles asked, he almost wanted to hit himself for asking, but he had to check. He had to know where this was coming from, if it was a spur of the moment, if it was because of the cheek kiss.

Max chuckled. ‘No, Charles, I’m not.’

Charles narrowed his eyes at him. ‘You did drink beer all night.’

‘I’m not a lightweight like you, I can handle my liquor.’

Charles opened his mouth to protest, but he probably had a point so he said nothing.

‘So are you going to ask?’

‘I– Ehm,’ Charles stammered, his brain fogged and he couldn’t think anymore. Max was too close, the thought of kissing him overtook everything else. ‘Yes?’

‘Are you sure?’ Max raised his eyebrows, caressing Charles’ lips with the pad of his thumb.

Charles’ eyes were focussed on Max’s lips as he nodded before slowly looking up into his eyes.

‘You have to say it Charles, I need to be sure,’ Max said softly as he closed the remaining distance between their bodies and pressed up against him.

Their mouths were only inches apart now and everywhere where Max touched him felt like it was on fire. Charles licked his lips and fisted his fingers in Max’s white t-shirt.

‘Kiss me, please.’

Max smiled, his eyes lighting up and he brought both of his hands up to cup Charles’ cheeks.

‘You have no idea how long I have wanted to do this,’ he said and then he crossed the remaining distance and kissed him.

The kiss was gentle at first, their lips slowly moving. Max’s lips felt soft and warm, just like they had on Charles’ cheek before and Charles felt his entire body erupting in goosebumps. It just felt right to kiss Max and it didn’t take long for Charles to get impatient, taking Max’s bottom lip between his and sucking.

A whine left Maxs throat but it was muffled by Charles licking into his mouth, deepening the kiss. He shivered when their tongues touched and pressed his body even further against Max’s as he slowly let go of Max’s t-shirt and moved his hands to the nape of his neck, playing with the strands of blonde hair. Charles took his time exploring Max’ mouth, loving how Max’s hands did the same to his body, gripping his sides as he rolled his hips. The friction felt delicious and Charles whimpered, tightening his grip on Max’ hair.

A knock on the door made them pull apart.

The both of them were panting and didn’t allow the interruption to create much distance between them.

‘What?’ Max called out, his eyes still closed.

‘Are you two okay?’ Tilly’s voice carried through the door.

‘Yeah, we’ll be out soon,’ Max replied and Charles tried to ignore the disappointing feeling in his gut.

He wanted to stay here for a while, he wanted to keep on kissing Max, he wanted to explore what other sounds he could coax out of him.

‘Take your time,’ Tilly said and Charles could hear the clicking of her heels disappearing.

Max didn’t waste any time and crashed their lips together again. Charles let out a surprised sound, but didn’t pull him away, instead he melted against Max’s body. It didn’t really come as a surprise to him that Max was a great kisser, he felt like Max was good in everything he did and if he wasn’t he’d keep trying until he was.

Max’s hands disappeared under Charles’ button up and explored the skin of his back, his fingers teasing and going up and down his spine. Charles shivered and arched his back a little, making their chests rub together. It was really insane how good this felt, how his blood seemed to boil in his veins, how his heart galloped in his chest, how his dick started to throb in his pants.

‘Fuck,’ Charles groaned when Max latched his mouth against his neck, leaving a trail of open mouthed kissed all the way to his ear and then to his jaw before nipping at his lips again.

‘Hmm, no, not yet baby,’ Max chuckled against his mouth. ‘Just kissing for now.’

Baby.

The pet name alone made Charles want to jump into Max’s arms and keep kissing him forever, not to mention how Max said ‘not yet’, meaning he would be open to the idea. It made his knees feel weak when he thought about it.

A sudden thought made Charles pull back with a jolt, literally ripping his mouth away from Max and he stared at him with a frown, blinking hard as he tried to remember if Max talked about this before or if he read it anywhere.

‘What’s wrong?’ Max asked, a frown on his own brows now as well. ‘Did I-’

Charles interrupted him.

‘Do you still have a girlfriend?’

The frown on Max’s face disappeared and he chuckled softly, gripping the back of Charles’ neck to pull his face closer again.

‘Kelly and I broke up months ago, I would love to tell you the story, but I’d rather be kissi-’

Charles interrupted him once more, this time by crashing their lips together again. He slipped his tongue into Max’s mouth, the action already feeling so natural his chest felt warm. It was all he needed to know.

They kissed and kissed until they had to break away to gasp for air.

Max’s lips were red and swollen, his cheeks were rosy and his blue eyes were sparkling. Charles was pretty sure he looked the same and he knew it was going to be obvious for their new friends what they had been doing just now, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. He also didn’t try to think too much about what they just did, about how it would affect them. For now he would just enjoy it.

‘Do you want to get back to our room?’ Max asked, removing his hands from Charles’ waist.

Charles nodded and reached down to intertwine their fingers, watching as Max’ larger hand almost seemed to swallow his own.

‘Yeah, let’s go.’

Chapter Text

The now familiar sound of their fliphone’s ringtone woke Charles up. He tried to ignore the sound and cuddled further into his pillow, clinging to the sleep that was trying to call him back. Whoever was calling didn’t seem to agree, because once the phone fell silent, it only took a few seconds for the ringtone to start again.

Max groaned and Charles felt the bed dip beside him as he got up.

‘Hello?’ he grumbled.

It was quiet for a few seconds.

‘Jesus, good morning to you too. We did nothing wrong, we got people to donate and I’m sure the fans loved the stream last night.’

Charles could faintly hear someone yell at the other end of the line and he turned around in bed, seeing Max sitting on the edge with his back to Charles. He reached out with his hand, just able to reach Max’s spine with his finger tips.

Max turned around at the touch and smiled at him, causing butterflies to swarm in Charles’ stomach.

Last night was wonderful.

When they had emerged from the bathroom, everyone reacted very normally, the boys didn’t even seem to notice something was up, while Tilly and Lina smiled knowingly at them. They exchanged phone numbers and went on their way, reaching for each other's hands again once they were outside.

Max had pushed Charles against the wall in the hall to kiss him silly on the way to their room, and once again in front of their door. It made Charles feel like a teenager again. They had kissed a lot more after that, Charles had even climbed in Max’ lap, but nothing else happened. When they got too out of breath, they cuddled up in bed and talked until the early morning hours.

‘You said you wanted to kiss me for a while now, were you serious?’ Charles had asked, his head leaning on Max’s chest.

‘Yeah, I was,’ Max said quietly, playing with Charles’ hair. ‘I’ve had a crush on you since we were kids. It went away for a bit when I got into Formula 1, but when you joined too, it came back just as fast.’

‘I never noticed,’ Charles whispered.

He tried to think back to their karting days, but he couldn’t remember Max acting like he had a crush or that he even liked him. They were never really friends either, even while Charles wanted to, Max just never seemed approachable.

Max chuckled and pressed a kiss on the top of Charles’ head.

‘I think that’s what I wanted, and my dad would have never approved. If he found out, he would have been furious.’

Charles had frowned at the mention of Jos Verstappen, he had never liked that man, he gave him the creeps.

Charles got sucked back into reality when Max cursed and got up from the bed. He was just wearing his boxers and Charles happily took in the sight of Max’s mostly naked body, of the way his muscles moved in his back and his thighs when he paced from one side of the room to the other.

When Max stopped pacing and curled the fingers of his free hand into a fist, Charles knew he had to intervene. He quickly got up from the bed and in three strides he stood in front of Max. Just in his boxers as well, he gently took a hold of the flip phone and smiled at Max.

‘Let me,’ he whispered, prying the phone out of Max’s hands.

The man at the other end of the line was still talking when Charles’ pressed the phone to his ear.

‘Hello, this is Charles,’ Charles said calmly, letting the man know it was no longer Max he was talking to.

The line went quiet for a few seconds.

‘Mister Leclerc, I hope you won’t yell at me like your teammate,’ the man said and Charles could tell at his tone that he wasn’t thrilled with them.

‘That depends, what seems to be the problem?’

The man snorted. ‘You two are. That little stunt you pulled last night is what’s the problem.’

Okay, Charles could understand Max’s anger now.

‘I’m sorry if you feel that way, but we didn’t do anything wrong like Max already told you. We never broke the rules and we raised money, which, correct me if I’m wrong, is why we are doing this roadtrip you guys have basically forced us to go on.’

The man sputtered and Max grinned at him, stepping closer to grab his hips.

Before the man could speak again, Charles continued. ‘You can disqualify us if you want, we don’t care about winning anyways, we just want to raise money for the children, because that’s what matters here.’

‘Fine, but please keep in mind that what you do together is filmed, which means it’s seen and recorded and shared all over the world. What you do affects your team and us as much as it affects you.’

‘What’s your name?’ Charles asked.

‘Rick, why?’ the man replied, sounding unsure.

‘No reason, I hope you have a good day Rick.’

Without waiting for a response Charles closed the phone and threw it on the bed.

‘What an asshole,’ he muttered, glancing back at Max who looked at him like he wanted to jump his bones.

‘What?’ Charles chuckled.

Max didn’t say anything and pulled him against his body. He kissed him until they were breathless and dug his fingers into Charles’ waist as he moved their lips together.

‘That was so hot,’ he mumbled against Charles’ lips, pecking them again before leaning back to look at him. ‘So hot.’

Charles laughed and swatted Max’s chest.

‘Shut up, it was not. I just told him the same thing you did, but more polite.’

‘Exactly and it worked.’

Half an hour later they were dressed and in their car again.

Charles was glad Max didn’t act like last night hadn’t happened, he had kind of been afraid that maybe he would, that it had been the alcohol that made him kiss Charles and say all those things. Or that it all had been a dream.

When Max started the car, Charles placed the camera they used yesterday back in its place and turned the both of them on.

‘Good morning everyone,’ he greeted whoever was watching their stream. ‘I hope you all enjoyed last night, we want to thank all of you for your donations,’ he smiled.

‘We got in big trouble for it, but I think it was worth it,’ Max said, winking at the camera.

Charles tried not to stare at him for too long, but he loved it when Max was loose like this, when he seemed comfortable and didn’t mind the camera, when he smiled and especially when he winked.

‘Snitch,’ Charles teased, sticking his tongue out when Max glanced at him.

It was quite busy on the road this morning, but when Charles studied the map on his lap it seemed like they would have to leave the city soon, and once again take small country roads since they couldn’t take the highway.

Max had turned on the radio since he didn’t bring any CDs and was softly singing along to a Nickleback song. His voice sounded nice, better than when they sang You Belong To Me last night and Charles leaned back in his seat, listening.

‘You actually have quite a nice voice, did you know that?’ Charles said when the song ended.

Max turned his head to look at him, his face was scrunched up, he didn’t seem to agree.

‘I do not, I can’t sing for shit.’

Charles laughed at his expression.

‘Keep your eyes on the road, please, and let me be the judge of your voice. I’m the musical one here remember.’

‘You can judge my piano skills, not my voice, you’re not a singer.’

Charles laughed again. ‘Do you even play the piano?’

‘If you count this one dutch song I learned when I was little,’ Max replied and he started humming a very familiar tune.

‘Twinkle twinkle little star?’ Charles asked.

‘No, it’s called altijd is kortjakje ziek, but now that you mention it, it might be the same melody.’

‘If you say so, but if we’re ever close to a piano you have to play it for me.’

‘Why?’ Max scrunched up his nose. ‘It’s like the most simple song to play ever, isn’t it? I bet you can do it with your eyes closed.’

Charles probably could, but he just wanted to see Max’s long fingers play a song on the piano.

‘Doesn’t matter, please say you’ll play it for me?’

Max sighed but nodded.

‘Fine, but only if you play me one of your originals in return.’

‘Deal.’

Charles was behind the wheel again when it happened.

‘Fuck,’ he cursed. ‘Something is wrong, we need to pull over.’

Max, who was studying the map on his lap, looked up in alarm, his eyes scanning Charles’ body as if to try and find the problem.

‘What’s wrong? Are you okay? Do you feel okay?’

Despite feeling a little bit panicked about the red light and black letters on the dashboard, Charles chuckled.

‘I’m fine, the car however is not, or more specifically one of our tires.’

‘What about them?’ Max frowned, his eyes still on Charles.

‘Tire pressure is low, which probably means we have a flat tire right?’

‘How the hell should I know? Pull over, we’ll call someone.’

‘There’s not much space her-’ Charles started, but Max growled, actually growled at him.

‘Pull. Over.’

It shouldn’t have been hot. It shouldn't make Charles’ body feel like it was lit on fire, and it shouldn’t make his dick twitch in his pants. But it did.

‘Jeez, fine,’ Charles mumbled, slowing the car down so he could park it on the side of the road.

Max was out of the car before Charles could take his seat belt off and judging by the string of curses, which were either in Dutch or German, Charles guessed he had been right. He quickly got out of the car as well and walked around to stand next to Max.

The tire didn’t look very flat to him yet, but it definitely didn’t look like a normal tire too.

‘Do you know how to change a tire?’ Charles asked, putting his hands on his hips as he stared at what felt like the hundredth problem since they started this road trip.

It couldn’t just be easy, could it?

Life had to throw challenges at them. Test their patience, their sanity, their skills and their relationship. Whatever that was the moment.

‘I should have let Danny teach me,’ Max grumbled. ‘I’ve seen him do it, but I don’t remember everything.’

‘Okay,’ Charles said, wrecking his brain for what his dad taught him when he was young. ‘It’s been a very long time for me, but I bet that with the two of us we can figure this out.’

Charles went to the back of the car and opened the trunk, praying there was a spare tire and some tools underneath the coverage of the trunk. He pushed their bags and his suitcase aside and breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw that everything they needed was there. He pulled out the warning triangle first and pressed it in Max’s hand.

‘Here, place this like ten meters behind the car.’

Max grinned at him. ‘Safety first, huh? But just so you know, it’s supposed to be thirty meters behind the car. Or that’s the rule in the Netherlands at least.’

Charles rolled his eyes and grabbed the tools.

‘Whatever, you’re such a nerd,’ he teased. ‘Just put it wherever it needs to be and come help me.’

While Max walked away, Charles placed the tools next to the damaged tire before leaning into the car to get one of the cameras from the dashboard.

‘Well you guys, luck struck us again,’ he said, pointing the camera at the tire, which started to look flatter to him already. ‘Where’s our pit crew when we need them?’

He placed the camera on the hood of the car and kneeled next to the wheel, grabbing the tool he needed to loosen the bolts; he couldn’t remember what it was called.

‘Shouldn’t we use the jack to lift the wheel first?’ Max asked, coming to stand behind Charles.

Charles shook his head. ‘No, I remember my dad telling me that you need quite a lot of strength to get the bolts to loosen and it's easier to do this when the wheel is still touching the ground. When they’re a little loosened we can lift it,’ he explained. He could hear his father’s voice in the back of his mind, explaining it to him as Lorenzo was the one to change the wheel.

‘That makes sense,’ Max said as Charles tried to loosen the first bolt.

It wouldn’t bulge, and neither would the second one when he tried that instead. Sweat started to trip down his temple and he started to feel very stupid and weak, especially when Max started to laugh behind him.

‘You’re doing it wrong,’ Max said and he kneeled next to Charles, janking the tool out of his hands. ‘It’s righty tighty, lefty loosey, you just tightened the bolts.’

Now Charles really felt stupid. He bet that his team was laughing their balls off at home, seeing him struggle to loosen some bolts on a wheel, it was pathetic.

‘My dad would be so disappointed in me,’ Charles muttered instead and he tried to laugh it off.

Max, who just finished loosening up the second bolt, looked at him.

‘No he won’t, you remembered what to do, this was just a little brain error and it happens to everyone. You’re only human and I bet you know the next step of what to do because of him.’’

‘I guess, but I still feel stupid,’ Charles chuckled, grabbing the car jack to keep his hands busy.

‘At least your dad taught you, all mine cared about was winning races.’

And now he felt even more stupid.

Max finished the last bolt before he could say anything about it. His cheeks were flushed and strands of blonde hair clung to his sweaty forehead as he grinned at Charles.

‘Okay, bolts are loosened, now what oh wise Mr. Leclerc?’

‘We place the jack under the car and lift it up so we can remove the tire,’ Charles said. ‘We need to make sure to position it in the right place though, or we can damage the car.’

‘Which is where?’ Max asked. ‘Can’t have any more bad luck after this.’

Charles tried to remember and closed his eyes to focus. The heat made it difficult for him, and so did Max, who was close to him, looking sweaty and delicious. Bright blue eyes looked at Charles with so much trust, he was afraid to mess it up.

‘Right after the wheel?’

‘Are you sure?’ Max raised his eyebrows at him. ‘Because you don’t sound sure.’

‘Yes, it’s behind the front wheel,’ Charles said, more sure now as he leaned forward so he could look under the car, his fingers feeling for the metal piece that should be behind the wheel.

‘Can you hand me the jack?’

Max hummed and Charles held out his other hand.

The jack was heavier than he thought and it almost clattered to the floor, janking Charles’ wrist down as he tightened his hold on it.

Max chuckled.

‘How many people are laughing at us right now do you think?’

‘Oh, a lot, I think the both of us will be getting a how to change your tire course from our mechanics when we’re back,’ Charles answered, grinning up at Max before placing the jack on the right spot beneath the car.

‘You seem to know what you’re doing, so you can just teach me,’ Max said, sitting down crossed legged next to Charles.

Charles looked up to see Max already smiling at him.

If it wasn’t for the camera he would have kissed him. Presuming Max was okay with that.

Charles wasn’t really sure where they stood right now, what was happening between them, but at least Max had kissed him this morning. He figured that was a good thing. They should probably talk about it though, without the cameras.

‘Wouldn’t you rather a professional teach you? I’m going off my memory from ehhh, ten years ago probably?’ Charles said.

‘Nah,’ Max watched as Charles used the jack to lift the tire up from the floor. ‘I don’t like doing everything as they say in the textbook, you know that, I’d rather go for experience.’

Charles snorted. ‘The only experience I have is this.’

Max shrugged. ‘That’s enough for me.’

Was he flirting?

‘You know, you can just tell me if you want to spend more time with me after this whole roadtrip thing,’ Charles smirked, grabbing the wrench from the floor again to loosen the bolts further.

‘Okay, I want to spend more time with you after this whole roadtrip thing,’ Max said.

Charles almost dropped the wrench to the floor.

Did he just really say that in front of the camera? Did he forget it was on? Did he mean it?

Multiple questions rushed through Charles’ mind and he blinked a few times, trying to calm his racing heartbeat.

‘Eh, okay,’ he replied, glancing at Max before focussing on the task in front of him.

Max let out a laugh, throwing his head back and he clapped his thighs with his hands.

‘You’re so easy to rile up, but I mean it, I think we can be great friends really.’

Friends.

Right.

Chapter Text

Charles’ fingers were still stained with grease when they drove into the next town. The FIA had called them after they got back in the car and ordered them to go to the nearest garage to change their flat tire for a new spare, just in case. They even gave them directions on how to get there, telling them it was for safety.

Charles was happy they did, cause he himself would not have thought about it, and what if they got another flat tire? He sure hoped they wouldn’t, even if he now knew exactly how to change it.

They officially were in Italy now, meaning this time Charles was the one with the language advantage. Max had even asked him already to speak with the mechanics once they reached the garage.

‘I wish we had money to go to one of these cafe’s and have some lunch,’ Max mumbled when they drove through a quite busy street with multiple little cafes.

It was a sunny day and almost all the tables on the side of the street were taken with people enjoying the weather and some food.

‘I would kill for a cappuccino,’ Charles agreed.

He tried not to think too much about food, it made him realize how lucky he had been all his life, not to have to worry about what he would eat everyday. He knew his mom had when he was younger, but Charles himself never really had to. He quite liked how this trip made him realize how much more he should appreciate his way of life and how he really wanted to give back more to others who couldn’t live like that.

Max grimaced as he maneuvered the car through the next small street.

‘I’d rather have a Red Bull.’

Of course he would.

When Charles looked out of the window again, he noticed they had gained some curious stares and it was then that he remembered that their car had a big sticker on the side telling everyone who was inside.

Already he saw two girls getting out of their seats with their phones out.

‘We’ve been spotted,’ Charles told Max as he turned into the driveway of the garage they were told to go too.

A tall man in overalls walked towards them with a clipboard in his hands.

‘You’re here for the tire, right?’ he asked in Italian when they got out of the car.

‘We are,’ Charles nodded, following the man when he turned around and strode towards the garage.

‘Max, Charles!!’ a female voice yelled from behind them.

Charles groaned silently, it must be the girls he saw earlier.

‘You go on inside, I won’t understand a thing anyways,’ Max said, softly pushing Charles’ lowerback. ‘Just don’t leave me alone with them too long, please.’

Charles appreciated the sacrifice, he knew Max wasn’t the biggest fan of dealing with fangirls like this, so he focussed on the mechanic, it shouldn’t take too long anyways.

About five minutes later Charles had signed the forms, took a selfie with the man, signed some stuff and was on his way out again with the tire in his hands. Satisfied with not leaving Max alone with the girls too much, Charles stepped outside, only to be greeted with screams.

Somehow, in the few minutes he was inside, multiple other fans had joined the girls. Max was surrounded by a group of girls, who now turned their attention to Charles. Within seconds it was him who was surrounded, leaving only a few to stand by Max.

‘Charles, could we take a selfie, please?’

‘Charles, over here.’

‘Charles, are you and Max together now?’

Question after question was thrown at him, hands pulled at his arms, someone pressed against his back and he almost dropped the tire when someone touched his ass. Still he smiled.

‘Okay, that’s enough, back up please,’ Max’s voice boomed as he made his way through the girls to stand next to Charles.

He took the tire out of Charles’ hands and glowered at the crowd now in front of him.

‘If you all just calm down, he can get some quick selfies, but then we really need to get going. As you all know, we’re on a clock.’

To Charles’ surprise, the girls actually calmed down a bit and one even apologized. Just like Max said, he took some pictures and even took someone’s phone to take a sort of group selfie with him and Max.

‘Here, I got you these, figured you could use some energy after your bad luck this morning,’ one of the girls said, handing over two cold Red Bulls to Charles. ‘They sell them at the garage,’ she explained when Charles raised his eyebrows in surprise.

‘Thank you, that’s really kind of you,’ he smiled. ‘We really appreciate it, don’t we Max?’

Max just grunted and the girls laughed.

‘We have to go now, come on,’ Max placed his hand on Charles’ back again and pushed him into the direction of their car.

‘Good luck,’ the girls yelled after them.

Max got behind the wheel again and dropped the spare tire on the back seat before starting the car. He seemed in a hurry to get out of here and Charles chuckled quietly as he buckled up.

‘You did get the Red Bull you wanted out of this,’ Charles laughed, opening a can and handed it to Max.

‘But also a headache from the screaming,’ Max mumbled, but he was smiling.

A big surprise awaited the two when they stopped for gas two hours later. Charles had just gotten out of the car to fill up the tank, when a familiar car stopped behind theirs.

It was the exact same car as theirs, a black Seat Leon, but with different names on the side.

‘MAXY!’ the excited voice of Daniel Ricciardo yelled out as he got out of the passenger seat.

His long legs carried him over to Max’s side of the car in no time, pulling his former team mate in a tight hug. Max laughed and hugged him back, clapping his back.

Daniel had one of their cameras in his hands and he turned it to show Charles too.

‘Look who we ran into everyone, it’s Lestappen!’

Charles rolled his eyes but waved at the camera anyways.

‘Good to see you, mate.’

‘Charles, good to see you,’ George said as he calmly walked over to them, wrapping his long arms around Charles’ shoulders before fistbumping Max. ‘You too, Max.’

‘I didn’t think we would run into any of the teams, are you two lost or are we?’ Charles joked as he turned around to fill up the car.

‘Uhh, neither, I think, but don’t quote me on that,’ George replied, leaning against the car. ‘How are you two doing?’

‘Good, good, haven’t killed each other yet as you can see. We’re actually getting along pretty well.’

George raised his eyebrows at that and cocked his head.

‘I see,’ he said, his lips curling up in a smile before his eyes flicked to where Max was talking to Daniel. ‘That’s good, mate, I’m glad.’

‘What about you?’ Charles asked, closing the filler cap. ‘You and Danny Ric getting along?’

‘Yeah, he’s fun, we’re having fun. Drinking wine every night, you know, the usual,’ George grinned.

‘What? How?’ Max quipped as he and Daniel joined them. ‘How do you still have money?’

Daniel wrapped his arm around Max’s shoulders.

‘By being smart, Maxy.’

George rolled his eyes. ‘He gets people to give us free wine, that’s how.’

Charles' mouth dropped open.

‘I’m charismatic, what can I say,’ Daniel shrugged. ‘You should try it sometimes.’

‘That would never work with me,’ Max shook his head, his eyes finding Charles. ‘Charles however, could maybe pull it off, people like him.’

‘I think the girls from earlier would have given us wine, they gave us Red Bull,’ Charles grinned, feeling his cheeks heat up.

Max’s face darkened and both Daniel and George raised their eyebrows when he seemed to growl while Charles just smiled. He kinda liked jealous Max.

‘They wanted to give you much more alright,’ Max said, getting out from under Daniel’s arm. ‘I’m going inside to pay.’

Charles watched him stomp away, his eyes lingering on his ass for a second before his attention was pulled away by George clearing his throat and Daniel stepping in front of him, blocking his view.

‘What’s that all about?’ Daniel asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Charles glanced at the car, where their cameras were still one, and then to the one still in Daniel’s hands.

‘Not sure what you mean, we met some fans at the garage earlier and they crowded us. Max wasn’t really happy about it and one girl gave us free Red Bulls,’ Charles summarized.

It was clear that both Daniel and George knew there was more to it, but they didn’t say anything, just hummed. They had seen his glances to the camera’s and understood.

‘Free Red Bull isn’t as good as wine though,’ Daniel grinned instead.

Charles couldn’t help but agree.

By the time Max got back, they were talking about something else already.

After a few more moments of catching up Charles had excused himself to go to the bathroom, hugging Daniel and George goodbye and wishing them luck on the last part of their journey.

When he came out of the stall however, Max was there, leaning against one of the sinks, frowning.

‘That girl touched your ass, you shouldn’t be okay with that,’ Max spoke up, he was clearly still upset about it.

‘I wasn’t,’ Charles argued, his lips curling up in a smile.

Max had really followed him to the bathroom for this, he was actually jealous of something so silly.

Great friends, his ass.

Sure he knew Max probably had said that for the camera, but a small part of his brain wondered if that was really it. Maybe this was all just some fun for Max, nothing too serious, and he would forget all about it once they got back. Maybe.

‘You just kept on smiling, like you’re doing now, did you like it then?’ Max snapped, crossing his arms.

‘What?’ Charles was frowning now.

‘Did you like her touching your ass?’ Max spat out the words like it was something disgusting.

Okay it had gone far enough now.

Charles stepped forward into Max’s space and brought his hand up to cup the back of Max’s neck, bringing his face closer to his own.

‘Stop that,’ Charles whispered before softly pecking Max’s lips. ‘I did not enjoy it one bit, I promise you. I much rather have you touch my ass.’

This softened the glare on Max’ face and his hands came up to Charles’ waist, pulling him against his body.

‘Are you sure? Cause I’d rather you tell me if-’ Max said, but Charles interrupted him by kissing him again.

Max sighed against his lips and moved his hands from Charles’ waist to his ass, sliding his fingers into the back pocket of Charles’ jeans and squeezing softly.

Charles broke away to laugh.

‘Yes, that’s what I’m talking about,’ he grinned. ‘Now stop being insecure, that’s not the Max Verstappen I know.’

‘I think you’ll be the only thing I’d ever be insecure about, the only one who can make me feel like this,’ Max whispered as he leaned his forehead against Charles’.

‘Like what?’

‘Unsure? Jealous? Like a lovesick fool? You name it.’

Charles' heart jumped in his chest at the confession and the vulnerability in Max’s voice.

‘I make you feel like that?’

‘Charles, you make me feel a lot of things,’ Max admitted, pulling back so he could look into Charles’ eyes. ‘Always have and probably always will.’

‘So when you said we could be great friends…’

Max snorted and shook his head at him.

‘Jesus, you silly man, that was for the camera, I thought you knew. You have me wrapped around your little finger, which is why I went crazy about that bit–, eh girl, touching you like that.’

‘So the both of us are just being stupid for no reason?’ Charles chuckled, clenching his fingers around the back of Max’s neck.

Max squeezed his ass again and the both of them smiled.

‘I guess we are, nothing new is it?’

Charles closed the distance between them again, kissing Max harder this time. Max wasted no time slipping his tongue into Charles’ mouth and angling his head so he could kiss him even deeper. His hands stayed on Charles’ ass the entire time, squeezing, pulling him closer against him.

They only broke apart when they heard voices coming closer and just as the bathroom door opened Charles stepped away from Max. He turned his body so it seemed like he was looking in the mirror and brushed his hands through it a few times, fixing it.

When the man went into one of the stalls, Charles turned around again, brushing his lips against Max’s cheek before grabbing his hand.

‘Let’s get going, we spend way too much time here already,’ he winked.

When they arrived at their motel for the night, Charles was exhausted. They got some groceries for today and tomorrow, which reminded them once again they had to watch their money. They were already on day four of the road trip, the amount of days the FIA had anticipated they needed, with still a lot of miles to cover.

‘I don’t think we’ll arrive tomorrow either,’ Max agreed when Charles brought it up.

‘So we need to be prepared to sleep in the car tomorrow,’ Charles sighed, sitting down on the bed.

Once again the room only had one bed, but Charles didn’t mind anymore than Max did. He quite looked forward to cuddling up against Max soon.

‘Ugh, do we really have to?’ Max asked, pulling his dirty white t-shirt over his head and throwing it onto his bag.

Charles was too distracted by his bare chest to answer right away. His eyes lingering on every visible mole, his abs, his hips, the little blonde hairs right above to where his jeans were clinging to his body.

‘You’re drooling,’ Max said, unbuttoning his jeans and kicking them off.

Charles leaned back into the pillows even more and let his eyes wander further down. Max was wearing dark blue boxers that seemed a little too tight and left nothing to the imagination. Charles didn’t mind it one bit.

‘Can’t help it when you look like that,’ Charles grinned.

Max rolled his eyes and let himself fall onto the bed face forward, catching himself on his elbows. He placed his chin in his palms and smiled up at Charles.

‘It’s a little unfair now, isn’t it? Chop chop, get undressed Mister, or I’ll do it for you.’

Charles’ entire body seemed to erupt in flames then.

‘What if I want you to?’ he challenged.

Max grinned and scrambled onto his knees, crawling over to where Charles was sitting. He swung his legs over Charles’ thighs and straddled him, his fingers finding the hem of Charles’ blue Ferrari t-shirt.

Slowly, almost too slow, Max slid Charles’ shirt up. His fingers lingering on Charles’s abs before continuing and pulling the shirt over his head, throwing it on the floor.

‘Yeah, looks much better on the floor,’ Max nodded, letting his hands wander across Charles’ chest.

Charles tried to lean forward to kiss him, but Max evaded his mouth.

‘Uh-uh, not yet baby.’

Baby.

The pet name rolled so easily off Max's tongue that it made Charles shiver.

Max’s hands wandered to the button of Charles’ jeans next and he flicked it open with one hand before gently moving backwards over Charles’ thighs and pulling the pants with him. He got off the bed to pull them over Charles’ feet and threw them on the floor next to the shirt.

‘There, that’s better,’ Max grinned, climbing onto the bed again, but instead of crawling on top of Charles again, he fell down on the mattress next to him.

Charles pouted at him and Max laughed.

‘I’m sorry baby, maybe I shouldn’t have done that. While every part of me wants to jump your bones, I– eh, I don’t want to do it tonight. Not yet, not here.’

‘But,’ Charles started to argue, frowning down at Max who wrapped his arm around Charles’ waist and cuddled up against his chest. ‘Really?’

Max kissed Charles’ bare chest before looking up at him.

‘I don’t want us to go too fast, I want to do this right.’

Charles blinked down at him and while a part of him was disappointed, he also felt his heart warm at how serious this meant Max was about them. It meant Charles was not just some fun fling for him, something to make this trip better.

‘And once we get back, I want to take you on a proper date,’ Max added, pulling himself up a bit to kiss Charles’ chin. ‘I know I sound like an old man and I’m sorry for teasing you.’

Charles groaned and threw his head back against his pillow.

‘You’re a huge tease and you know it, but I get it. We can take it slow, for now at least. Can’t promise to keep my hands to myself though, or my mouth.’

With that said he moved so he could push Max down on his back and lean over him. Blue eyes looked up at him, causing him to groan again. He appreciated what Max was doing, he really did, but every fiber in his body was screaming to argue, to convince Max otherwise, to kiss his way down his body and–.

‘I’m not asking you too, I just think we shouldn’t sleep with each other right away. I had my feelings for a while, I can wait a few days longer,’ Max said, breaking Charles’ train of thoughts.

The last sentence made Charles perk up and he leaned down to press his lips against Max’s jaw, moving them further down to kiss his neck.

‘A few days? Why would that make a difference? What if I don’t want to wait?’ he spoke against Max’ pulse point, flicking his tongue out to taste the skin there.

‘Tough luck, no funny business tonight,’ Max chuckled, his hands coming up to pull Charles’ body on top of him. ‘Patience, baby, it will be rewarded, I promise.’

‘Fine,’ Charles mumbled, cuddling against Max and nestling his head on his chest. ‘You’re such a romantic.’

‘I like to think so, I know some people might think otherwise, but I don’t like to just fuck around with just everyone. I want to be sure, I want the other person, I want you, to be sure. Like I said, I’ve been living with these feelings for a while, you’re quite new to them.’

‘And you don’t want me to regret it, is that it?’ Charles asked, listening to Max’s heartbeat as it sped up a little.

‘Yes. I don’t want you to sleep with me, and then decide it’s not what you want and move on.’

Charles lifted up his head to look at Max, only to find that the dutchman had his eyes closed, so he settled back down and tangled their legs together, cuddling further into Max.

‘I don’t think I ever could.’

Chapter Text

The next day Charles and Max got in the car right after sunrise. They decided they had some time to make up for and weren’t really fond of the idea of having to sleep in the car two days in a row. They had a little money left, but they were planning on saving that for gas if needed, and food if they ran out.

Max was wearing one of Charles’ shorts and his last white t-shirt, meaning from tomorrow on he would be fully in Charles’ clothes and that did something to Charles’ brain.

His shorts had just fit around Max’s wider hips and they were a few inches shorter on his legs than they were for Charles. It was really distracting, how high they rode up on his thighs. Charles kept glancing at them as Max drove. His fingers itching to touch them.

‘Do you think some of the other teams will have arrived yet?’ Charles asked Max, trying to distract himself.

He couldn’t keep staring at Max’s thighs, the people at home would notice, they probably already had.

‘I think so, we’re on day five now, right? I bet either Alex and Oscar or Valtteri and Yuki have arrived already, and I think some others will join them today,’ Max said, looking over his shoulder before switching lanes. ‘I don't think we’ll be arriving last though.’

‘Hmm, you might be right,’ Charles nodded. ‘I have a feeling Daniel and George are taking their time and I bet Carlos and Pierre will be behind as well.’

‘Do you think Lando and Lewis will still be friends after this?’ Max asked, chuckling. ‘I have a feeling Lando will be driving Lewis crazy by being chaotic as hell.’

Charles laughed. ‘Oh for sure, but Lewis seems to be a patient dude and he’ll probably have found a way to handle Lando.’

‘You say that like he’s a dog, or a kid.’

‘Well, he can be a kid sometimes, I like that about him though. He can make everything fun and light, he’s a good guy and an even better friend.’

‘I know,’ Max nodded.

Charles smiled and leaned his head against the cool window, looking outside at the pretty landscapes of Italy. He had looked at the map earlier and they were getting closer to their destination, they expected to arrive sometime tomorrow. On the one hand Charles hoped they would, he was in desperate need of a normal bed, some good food, delicious coffee and some rest, but he also didn’t want his time with Max to end.

He knew that getting to their destination didn’t mean they had to go home immediately, but they would be around more people again, it wouldn’t be just them, and he was just getting used to that. He liked it. He also knew that they could spend time together at home, at races, whenever really, but it was still different, even though he also looked forward to it.

Charles was excited to go on a date with Max, to see where they could take this. He wanted to get to know Max better, he wanted to learn what it was he loved to do, how he spent his free weekends when he wasn’t on the track. He wanted to meet Max’s sister and introduce him to his own family. He could already see his mother’s knowing smile in his mind. She probably had seen this coming. His mother always knew what was going on in her son's lives, before they did. It was almost scary sometimes.

After a long day of driving, taking turns napping in the passenger seat, eating sandwiches with nutella and drinking so much water they had to stop almost every hour so Charles could pee, they decided to call it a day.

It had been very hot all day, making it the worst day to sleep in the car really, but they didn’t really have much of a choice. So when they drove past a lake, Max came up with the idea to drive around it and find a place to park the car so they could at least take a dip in the water to cool down.

They drove over a patch of grass to get deeper into the trees, to stay hidden a bit. Charles parked the car behind some bushes and turned it off, glancing at Max in the passenger seat.

‘You want to swim now?’ he asked, opening the door.

‘Maybe we should wait till it’s a little darker, I don’t really want to be seen and attract people,’ Max replied, opening his door as well. ‘Let’s look at the map again and plan for tomorrow. I think we should be able to reach the hotel tomorrow if everything goes well.’

Max took the map with him and laid it down on the hood of the car, leaning over it with a frown on his face. His finger followed the lines that marked the roads as he mumbled something under his breath and nodded.

Charles leaned against the side of the car and watched him. Now that the cameras could only hear them, but not see, he could do so freely. His eyes traced every inch of Max and lingered on his legs, on the place where Charles’ tiny shorts stopped.

When he glanced back up he found Max already looking at him, a smirk on his face. He raised his hand and crooked his finger at Charles, gesturing to him to come closer.

Charles felt his cheeks heat up, but he went anyway.

‘Here, look at this,’ Max said like he meant for Charles to look at the map.

While he said so, he turned around to lean against the hood and pulled Charles in between his legs, his fingers fisting Charles’ shirt.

‘Like what you see?’ he whispered in Charles’ ear, nipping at his earlobe.

It took everything in Charles not to moan.

He leaned back and narrowed his eyes at Max.

‘Tease,’ he mouthed at him with no sound.

Max just grinned and leaned forward to place a soft kiss on his lips.

‘I’m not sure what I’m looking at,’ Charles said, grinning back at Max.

He was pretty sure the audience knew something was up between them, but he happily played along with Max. They talked some more about the journey they should take tomorrow, stealing kisses in between, playing with each other's hair and acting like lovesick teenagers really.

For dinner they sat down in the grass on the towel Charles brought, and ate croissants and an apple. For dessert they shared a chocolate bar.

‘I feel like a kid again, eating this,’ Charles said, popping a piece of chocolate in his mouth.

‘Why? Because of the chocolate?’ Max asked, frowning in confusion.

‘No, I eat chocolate sometimes, but because of this thrown together dinner. Simple, but delicious, and it reminds me of this one holiday when Arthur and I were in charge of buying dinner. I think we pretty much came up with what we just ate, but instead of normal croissants they were filled with chocolate and instead of apples we bought raisins.’

‘Raisins?’ Max laughed, breaking off another piece of chocolate.

‘Hmhm, don’t ask me why but Arthur had this period where he would pretty much eat raisins all day. He’d eat them for breakfast with his yogurt, as a snack after lunch, he even threw them over his vegetables once.’

Max pulled a face and Charles nodded in agreement.

‘I know, the whole family couldn’t see raisins without feeling sick for a while after that. I think Arthur hates them now.’

‘I can imagine,’ Max chuckled. ‘My sister had this obsession with ketchup for a while, she’d eat literally anything with it as well, and now she only eats curry.’

‘I think every kid has a phase like that,’ Charles smiled, snatching the last piece of chocolate away just before Max could get it.

‘Hey!’ Max pouted, making his eyes all big and fluttering his lashes.

Charles wasn’t immune to his puppy eyes, no one probably was, so he bit the piece of chocolate in half and offered the other half to Max, holding it up in front of his mouth.

He should have known doing that was a bad idea, but at least he didn’t have the camera to worry about as they luckily turned it off to have their dinner in peace.

Max opened his mouth and let Charles feed him the piece of chocolate. His lips touched Charles fingers, as did his teeth and then his tongue. It shouldn’t affect Charles as much as it did.

He shivered and quickly pulled his hand away, but not before seeing Max’s eyes darken.

‘Maybe we should go for that swim now,’ Charles suggested, he hated how husky his voice sounded.

‘Hmhm, good idea,’ Max hummed and he jumped on his feet with ease.

Charles followed, but not as graceful as Max had. He almost stumbled and had to wave his arms to keep upright.

‘Did you bring a swimsuit?’ Charles asked, leaning down again to collect the empty chocolate bar wrapper and the towel. ‘I think I brought one, but I’m not sure.’

Max didn’t reply and when Charles turned around, he was met with the sight of Max undressing. He had his back to Charles and was currently wiggling out of his jeans.

‘Jesus,’ Charles hissed.

For a man who claimed he wanted to wait, who wanted to take it slow, he sure knew how to make it hard for Charles.

‘Are you doing this on purpose or what?’ Charles groaned when Max turned around, giving him a perfect view of his abs and how tight his boxers were.

Max actually blushed then.

‘I’m really not, but I- I don’t really think before I do things sometimes.’

Charles took off his t-shirt and sighed.

‘I know, I usually like that about you.’

‘But not now?’ Max took a step closer to Charles and took his t-shirt from him, throwing it in the back of the car.

Charles unbuttoned his jeans shorts, keeping his eyes on Max’s blue ones who’s gaze went to Charles’ hips.

‘I still do, but you’re not making it easy for me to take it slow.’

Max’s eyes snapped up to meet Charles’.

‘I know, I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘It’s not easy for me either, you know, I–’

Charles interrupted him. ‘I know, you don’t have to explain again. It makes me feel stupid for not figuring out you liked me sooner.’

Max smiled and took another step closer to Charles.

‘And you think that would have made you like me back sooner as well?’ Max shook his head. ‘You weren’t ready before and that’s okay.’

Charles opened his mouth to protest, but Max was probably right. He hadn’t been ready before, sure he thought Max was attractive, but he wouldn’t have felt about him the way he did now, after spending four days with him. It really opened his eyes.

Maybe he should send the FIA something as a thank you.

Ha, no the fuckers didn’t really deserve that.

‘Are you going to take your pants off or what? Swimming with jeans isn’t comfortable, you know?’ Max chuckled, snapping Charles out of his thoughts.

He glared at Max and wiggled out of his jeans, leaving them on the grass as he stepped out of them.

‘Wanna race to the lake?’ Charles suggested, knowing that with Max’ competitive nature he would accept.

It also helped that it would distract him from how Max was standing only a few inches away from him, nearly naked and looking too damn good. Charles wanted to climb him like a tree, kiss every inch of skin and seduce him to give in already.

But he wouldn’t do that. He would respect Max’s wish. For now at least.

‘Sure, what are we racing for?’ Max grinned, rolling his shoulders.

‘Do you always need to win something? Isn’t a trophy every race weekend enough?’

‘Winning is all that matters Charles, it’s what I race for,’ Max shrugged.

Charles was about to laugh when he realized that Max was probably serious. Winning had always been the only acceptable thing for Max, or for Jos Verstappen really.

‘No it’s not,’ Charles closed the distance between them and cradled Max’s face in his hands. ‘I’m probably going to sound really cliche, because yes, winning is the best feeling in the world and we all want to win, but the journey there is just as important as winning or not winning.’

Max made a face, but Charles continued.

‘The journey of racing, the race itself, the thrill of it, that’s what matters too. That’s what makes it fun, don’t you agree?’

‘I guess so.’

‘Remember when my Ferrari was fast enough to race you?’ Charles asked, ignoring the stab in his heart it gave him to say that.

Oh how he wished his car was good enough to challenge Max all the time, to actually race him.

Max grinned. ‘I do.’

‘That was fun, right? Even when I sometimes stole that P1 from you?’

Max leaned into Charles’ touch and sighed.

‘Okay, maybe you’re right. Racing you like that, being challenged like that, that was fun. I miss that.’

‘Me too,’ Charles admitted. ‘And I’m really glad we didn’t turn that damned camera on again, Mia would kill me.’

‘Let’s leave it off until after our swim,’ Max said. ‘Now, tell me what we’re racing for.’

Charles let go of Max’s face and rolled his eyes, of course he still wanted to win something.

‘Three, two,’ he started to count down, ignoring Max’s ‘Charles!’

At one Charles turned around and started to sprint towards the lake.

‘Hey!’ Max yelled, chasing after him.

Charles laughed and let his legs carry him as fast as he could, loving the feeling of being chased, just like he always had when he was a kid or when he led a race. He could feel Max getting closer, but he didn’t dare look over his shoulder.

When Charles’ feet hit the water, a shriek left his mouth.

The water was a lot colder than he thought it would be, but he carried on, water splashing everywhere, until he was deep enough to take a dive.

When Charles emerged from the water, Max was just getting to the surface again as well. He shook his head and droplets of water flew everywhere, his hair standing upright a little before he raked his fingers through it, flattering the blonde locks.

Charles swam towards him.

‘Guess I won,’ he smiled, snaking his arms around Max’s neck and wrapping his legs around his waist, clinging onto him like a monkey.

Max’ arms came around Charles as well and he smiled.

‘Guess so, but since we didn’t make any arrangements for what the winner would get, I guess you get nothing.’

‘Nothing?’ Charles gasped in fake disbelief. ‘Not even a medal? Where’s my national anthem?’

Max started humming and Charles immediately recognized the Dutch national anthem.

‘Hey, that’s not my anthem! Stop that, I hear that bloody song enough already,’ he laughed, swatting Max’ chest.

‘That bloody song? Jesus, you spend too much time with George,’ Max chuckled as he started moving them around in the water.

‘You jealous?’ Charles teased as he closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of Max’s body against his, of the water flowing around them.

‘Of George, yes,’ Max replied. ‘Not of you spending time with him.’

‘Well, you don’t have to be anymore, you can spend time with me from now on,’ Charles smiled, opening his eyes again.

Max’s beautiful blue eyes were already focused on him and he smiled.

‘I’d love that, now will you please shut up and kiss me.’

Charles giggled and surged forward to crash their lips together.

Max’s hands slid upward over Charles’ back, to his neck and into Charles’ hair, his fingers burying into the longer locks and pulling gently. Charles gasped and Max immediately took that opportunity to deepen the kiss, slipping his tongue past his lips.

Charles sighed happily, welcoming the feeling of fire in his belly. He loved kissing Max, it was addicting, it felt like a zoo came alive inside of him, but in a good way. His heart galloped in his chest, goosebumps erupted all over his skin and if his legs weren’t around Max’s waist he was sure they’d feel like jelly right now.

Max’s hands wandered down again, away from Charles’ hair and to his hips, gripping him with both hands and pulling his lower body even tighter against his own.

‘Fuck, Max,’ Charles moaned, pulling away from Max’s mouth.

Max however, just moved his lips to Charles’ neck, pressing open mouthed kisses on the skin, all the way to the junction between his neck and shoulder where he bit down.

Charles’ hips bucked forward, making the both of them groan.

This time Max pulled back too. His lips were swollen and his pupils so wide, they almost swallowed the blue.

‘I’m doing it again, aren’t I?’ Max panted, throwing his head back.

It took everything in Charles to not lean forward and lick his exposed neck, but he didn’t want to make it even harder on himself, even though he wanted Max to give in and just have sex with him already. Or well, anything really.

A weird grunting sound, followed by some sort of growl made Charles tense in Max’s arms.

‘What was that? Did you hear that?’

‘Hear what?’ Max asked, looking around them to see if he could spot whatever Charles had heard.

There it was again, a low growl.

‘That growling, did you hear?’

What in the hell was making that sound? What animals lived here? A wolf or anything wouldn’t make sense in an area like this, would it?

Charles had no idea.

‘Growling? No, I didn’t hear that. Are you sure you’re not just paranoid?’ Max teased, kissing the tip of Charles’s nose.

Charles narrowed his eyes at Max before uncurling his legs from Max’s waist.

‘I’m not, should we go check it out?’

Max however didn’t seem to want to let go and placed his big hands on Charles’ thighs, keeping them in place.

‘You think you heard growling and you want to go check it out? What if you’re right and it is some sort of dangerous animal?’ Max raised his eyebrows at him.

‘Should we wait it out then? What if it’s an animal that’s hurt?’

‘And they growl? Charles, you said a horse growled, are you sure it was even a growl you heard? Because if it’s a horse or I don’t know, a sheep or something, I will seriously laugh at you.’

‘I know what I heard and I know horses don’t growl, I was under time pressure alright?!’ Charles yelled out, defending himself.

He wasn’t entirely stupid, of course he knew horses didn’t growl. English just kicked his butt sometimes.

‘Fine, we can go check it out, but I’m turning on the camera,’ Max said and he slowly started walking through the water.

‘Why?’ Charles asked, once again uncurling his legs from Max’s waist.

This time Max let him go.

‘So if we get killed, people know what happened to us.’

‘You’re so dramatic sometimes,’ Charles laughed as they made their way to the shore.

It was slowly getting darker outside now and because they weren’t that close to the road, Charles expected it to be pitch black in about an hour or so. Hopefully they could find whatever animal he heard before that and either get it to safety or get themselves the hell out of here.

Max went straight to the side of the car to grab one of the camera’s while Charles grabbed his towel and wrapped it around his upper body.

‘Hi guys, it’s Max and Charles here and I want you all to be witness to whatever animal is going to murder us in a bit,’ Max said to the camera. ‘We’ve just been for a swim and someone claims he heard something growling, but we all know Charles and his knowledge for sounds.’

‘Max!’ Charles yells, a laugh escaping his throat. ‘It’s not a horse, I swear.’

He heard it again then, a deep growl, followed by some grunts and loud sniffing.

Max stiffened.

‘Ehh, I did hear it this time, and Charles is right. That is not a horse,’ Max admitted to the camera, scratching his neck and looking left and right for any sign of an animal.

‘I told you,’ Charles placed his hands on his hips. ‘I’m not paranoid.’

‘Maybe we should get in the car, I have no idea what– Fuck,’ Max’s eyes widened. ‘Charles, it’s a boar, get in the car,’ Max ordered, opening the car door.

Charles turned around in curiosity, he had no idea what a boar was.

When he saw the animal, he froze.

It was staring right at him, its head low and more grunts left its mouth, which Charles now knew could break bone.

Fuck.

‘Charles, get in here,’ Max hissed.

For some reason, Charles’ brain went into flight mode, and instead of getting into the car, which was right beside him, Charles ran.

‘Charles! Fuck, where are you going?’ Max yelled after him, panic laced in his voice.

Charles didn’t reply, couldn’t reply. Cold sweat broke out on neck and naked back as he dropped the towel and ran straight towards the trees.

He didn’t hear anything following him, but he didn’t dare look over his shoulder. Unlike the chase of earlier, towards the lake with Max, this one didn’t feel fun at all.

Without thinking he grabbed the lowest branch of the tree and hauled himself up, his feet kicking against the .., he was pretty sure he broke a toenail but the fear in his body overruled any pain.

He climbed higher, not thinking, just climbing until he couldn’t anymore.

And when he looked down, the boar stood underneath the tree.

It had followed him.

Fuck.

But instead of looking up at Charles, it stuck his nose in the dirt and grunted.

Charles blinked, and blinked again, but the boar still didn’t look up at him. It made some snorting sounds and messed up some of the dirt beneath the tree, seeming very unbothered Charles was somewhere up there.

Charles carefully sat down on the branch he was on and held onto another with his hands, not trusting himself enough to not fall down if he didn’t at least hold onto something. It took a few moments to catch his breath and the boar slowly moved away from the tree he was in.

Did he just have the scariest moment of his life for nothing?

Chapter Text

Charles’ heart was still galloping in his chest when the boar disappeared out of view. He had no idea how long he’d been in the tree for and he wondered when it was safe to get out. Would the boar get back once he did? How far away did it have to be for it to be safe?

For now Charles deemed it safer to just stay put for a while. Max would come get him eventually.

The tree bark felt rough against Charles’ naked back when he leaned against it, trying to get a little more comfortable. He was pretty sure he’d have grazes all over his body from climbing this bloody tree.

When his heartbeat had finally calmed down, the sky had gotten darker as well. It was still light enough to see, but it wouldn’t be long now until it would probably get pitch black around here.

‘Charles?’

Charles let out a sigh of relief at the sound of Max’s voice.

‘Up here,’ he called back, moving a little so he could look down. ‘Fuck, I’m high.’

For some reason he hadn’t noticed how high he had climbed before. May have been the adrenaline running through his body, which was definitely gone now.

‘I still don’t see you,’ Max called out again, his voice sounded closer. ‘Marco?’

Charles rolled his eyes. ‘Polo!’

‘Marco?’

‘Polo!’

Max got into view then and he wasn’t in just his boxers anymore. He was wearing Charles’ shorts and the shirt he had worn earlier, his blue Ferrari shirt. It did something funny to Charles’ brain to see Max in his clothes, it made his heartbeat speed up again.

‘Nice shirt,’ Charles called down, gripping the tree branch he was sitting on so tight his knuckles turned white.

Max looked up and smiled when he spotted Charles.

‘There you are, are you okay?’

‘Yeah, I think so. Is the boar gone?’ Charles asked, his eyes scanning the area around Max.

‘I haven’t seen it,’ Max said, still looking up at Charles. ‘Can you get down?’

Charles bit his lip and moved his hands to another branch, slowly lifting himself up. Sweat already dripped down his temple and his fingers hurt from gripping the branch. Taking a deep breath, Charles moved his leg to a lower branch before carefully and slowly shifting his weight.

‘That’s it, just take your time,’ Max called up.

Charles squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, trying to keep his breathing under control.

Don’t look down, don’t look down, don’t look down.

Of course that is exactly what he did then and a whimper escaped his mouth.

‘I’m going to fall,’ he said, hugging the tree.

He was never going to get down, not without injuring himself. He was going to fall and break his leg or his arm and then he wouldn’t be able to race for multiple weeks. Ferrari would kill him for being so careless. As would his mom.

‘Charles, baby, listen to my voice,’ Max said. ‘I’m right under the tree and you’re doing great. Slowly let go of the branch with your left hand first.’

Charles shook his head. ‘I can’t.’

‘Yes you can, come on baby, slowly okay?’

Charles took another deep breath and slowly, very slowly relaxed his muscles a little and let go with his left hand.

‘Good, now bend your knees a little and grab onto the branch that will be right next to you,’ Max instructed.

Charles did just that.

‘Now move your right leg down, good, yes, you got this Charles.’

Max talked him through the entire climb down and finally, after what felt like forever Charles felt a warm hand on his ankle.

‘Almost there, you did great,’ Max praised.

Charles wasn’t sure if it was the praise, Max’s voice or his muscles that were tired and aching, but he let go and jumped the last bit down.

Unfortunately he was still higher than he anticipated and with a yell Max tried to catch him. Hands gripped his waist, but the force of which Charles fell down, caused Max to lose his balance with the extra weight in his arms and the both of them fell down on the grass with a thud.

Breathing like a bull, Charles buried his face in Max’s chest. He survived. He got down. The boar didn’t bite his leg or arm off, he didn’t fall down and break any bones. He was okay. They were okay.

Max, who broke most of the fall by landing on his back, groaned and Charles immediately lifted his head up to look at him in worry.

‘Are you okay? Shit, I’m sorry for taking you down with me,’ Charles started the ramble. ‘I’m so stupid, I shouldn’t have run away, I shouldn’t have climbed so high, I-’

Max interrupted him by pressing his hand over Charles’ mouth.

‘I’m fine, I will just be a little sore tomorrow probably, but I can imagine you will be as well,’ Max said, pulling his hand back again. ‘We should get back to the car so I can look you over for scratches and disinfect them.’

Charles blinked down at him.

Max just smiled and brought his hand up to cup Charles’ cheek.

‘Get up, or we will never hear the end of it.’

That spurred Charles on to move, because he had an idea why Max said that.

‘The camera is still on?’ he hissed, climbing to his feet and holding out a hand for Max to pull him up.

Max accepted and gracefully jumped to his feet with Charles’ help.

‘I did not really think about anything other than getting you to safety,’ Max shrugged. ‘We should be too far away for them to hear what we have said here, or to really see much, but yeah..’

Charles groaned and threw his head back to look at the sky.

‘Great, so me running from the boar and climbing that tree will haunt me for the rest of my life.’

Max placed his hand on Charles’ back and started leading him towards the car.

‘Probably, but I’m sure everyone is just glad you’re okay.’

Yeah, Charles was never going to hear the end of it. He already knew his brothers and Pierre were going to tease him about this for the rest of his life.

They silently walked back to the car, Charles slightly behind Max to try and not give the camera too big of a glimpse of his nearly naked body. Everyone probably saw him like this already, but he didn’t feel like flaunting now. He just wanted to cuddle up against Max in the back of the car and sleep this off.

Charles walked around the back of the car to grab the first aid kit, some pants and Max’s t-shirt while Max went to the camera.

‘As you can see, Charles is okay, so we’re logging off for now, but we’ll see you soon,’ Max said to the people watching the stream. ‘Goodnight everyone.’

The camera was thrown on the passenger seat and before Charles knew it, Max was in front of him, grabbing his face in his hands and kissing him.

Charles dropped the first aid kit and wrapped his arms around Max’s waist, kissing him back. Their lips moving together was a familiar feeling now, soft, gentle, yet firm and in sync, like their lips were made for kissing each other. It was a silly thought really, but to Charles it really felt that way. They just fit.

When Max pulled back he leaned his forehead against Charles’ and moved his hands to the back of Charles’ neck, squeezing softly.

‘You really scared me there.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Charles whispered, pecking Max’ lips again. ‘I didn’t mean to, my body just reacted.’

‘I know,’ Max smiled. ‘But I hope to never have to watch you run away from me like that again, for whatever reason.’

‘Me too,’ Charles admitted. ‘And I especially hope to never have to run from a boar again, those things are scary.’

Max shivered and nodded, letting go of Charles’ neck so he could lean down and grab the first aid kit.

‘Can I check you over now? It would make me feel better.’ Max said when Charles sat down on the edge of the car trunk.

‘Okay,’ Charles nodded and he pulled off the shirt he had just put on, Max’s white t-shirt.

‘You should wear my shirts more often,’ Max grinned as he opened up a package of alcohol wipes. ‘They look way better on you, you look good in white.’

Charles winced when Max cleaned a scratch on his side.

‘Sure, but only if you wear mine. Tight shirts look good on you and I must say, so does the Ferrari brand.’

Max pulled a face. ‘I’m probably going to get scolded for being seen in it on camera, but I really just grabbed the first shirt I saw.’

‘It won’t be the only thing we’ll be scolded for, I have a feeling we can’t do anything right this trip,’ Charles laughed. ‘Do you think the other teams have gotten calls from the FIA as well?’

Max turned his attention to Charles' legs to clean the scratches there.

‘Probably, I can imagine Daniel and George getting calls as well.’

Charles hummed in agreement. ‘Danny for sure is getting scolded for bribing people for free wine.’

Their FIA phone started ringing then and the both of them groaned in unison.

‘There we go, ready to be scolded again?’ Max sighed, walked around the car to the front seat to get the phone.

‘Let’s just get it over with,’ Charles held his hand out for the phone. ‘I’ll take it.’

Max nodded, gave him the phone and grabbed a new alcohol wipe himself to clean Charles’ feet.

‘Hello,’ Charles answered the phone.

Instead of an angry voice, like Charles expected, someone like Ricky again who was annoyed with them, it was Christian.

‘Charles? Are you okay, son?’

‘Yeah, I just have some scratches, but I’m okay,’ Charles said, smiling at the sound of worry in Christian’s voice.

‘Good, I’m glad. That was really scary to watch, you know, you gave quite a few of us a heart attack.’

‘Max just said the same thing, but we’re fine and I’m sorry for scaring you,’ Charles really meant it, he didn’t even want to think what his mother would have gone through if she had been watching.

Charles hissed loudly when Max pressed an alcohol wipe to the bottom of his foot.

‘Are you sure you’re okay?’ Christian asked again. ‘Put Max on the phone, will you?’

Charles held out the phone for Max, who tucked it between his shoulder and cheek so he could continue his task, torturing Charles with the alcohol. His feet definitely took the worst of it.

‘Hey Christian,’ Max said as he lifted Charles' other feet.

Charles could faintly hear Christian talking, but not clearly enough to understand what he was saying.

‘Hmhm, yeah I figured as much, we can’t seem to do anything to make them happy these days,’ Max mumbled, letting go of Charles’ ankle and grabbing the phone properly. ‘He’s okay, just some cuts and bruises.’

Charles pulled his knees towards him and wrapped his arms around them, he was cooling down now that the sun was away and all the adrenaline had left his body.

Max frowned at him when he shivered and leaned into the back of the car to grab something from behind Charles. A hoodie was then thrown in his lap and Max mouthed a ‘put it on’ to him before focussing on his conversation with Christian again.

It was Max’ hoodie and it was a little big on Charles, but he loved it. It was soft and smelled like Max.

Charles pulled the sleeves of the hoodie over his hands and climbed further into the car, getting comfortable against the self-made pillow of his own hoodie. He felt really tired all of the sudden and closed his eyes, listening to Max talk to Christian.

He wasn’t sure if he had fallen asleep or just hadn’t noticed that the phone call had ended, but he jumped a little when Max put his hand on Charles’ side.

‘Sorry, were you sleeping already?’ Max asked, laying down next to Charles and pulling him against his chest.

‘Hmm,’ Charles just hummed, his brain fuzzy with sleep and his limbs heavy. ‘What did Christian say?'

‘Nothing important, go to sleep, Charles,’ Max said, kissing his forehead.

Charles put his arm around Max’ waist and nuzzled his nose against his chest.

‘Hm’kay, night,’ he mumbled, listening to the beating of Max’s heart and letting it lull him into sleep.

The next morning Charles woke up with Max plastered against his back. It felt nice, very domestic and also nice and warm. It had cooled down in the car again at night and Max had been radiating heat just like the other night. How he didn’t get cold, Charles didn't know, but he gladly cuddled even closer to the dutchman and Max had tightened his arms around him, like he wanted to protect him from the cold.

‘Morning,’ Max mumbled against Charles’ neck, his lips brushing the skin there and making goosebumps erupt all over Charles’ body.

‘Good morning,’ Charles replied, stretching his sore body.

The movement made his ass brush against Max’s crotch and a breathy groan escaped Max’s throat.

‘Sorry,’ Charles whispered, blood rushing to his cheeks and maybe also to another body part of his.

He tried to lay still and think about something that would calm his dick, this really wasn’t the time to get a hard one.

‘It’s fine,’ Max said, clearing his throat. ‘You know, I just realized we might sleep in a comfortable bed again tonight.’

‘And have a normal dinner,’ Charles added, he was already looking forward to both things.

‘It will be weird though, don’t you think?’ Max mumbled as he moved his hand over Charles’ arms, his fingers teasing the skin before intertwining their hands. ‘To not be together twenty-four seven after six days, to not sleep in the same bed, to go back to not thinking about how to spend our money.’

Charles chuckled and squeezed Max’ fingers.

‘The last one will be a relief, the first two will be weird, but I hope the end of the road trip won’t mean we’ll go back to how it was before.’

Max lifted himself up on his elbow and bent over Charles a little to press a kiss on his cheek.

‘Definitely not, I don’t want to go back to being whatever it was we were before. I don’t even think we can call it a real friendship.’

‘Yeah, probably not,’ Charles agreed, turning his head so he could look at Max. ‘So definitely more than friends, right?’

Charles knew they talked about this before and after yesterday he didn’t have a lot of doubts about Max’s feelings anymore, or about his own feelings for that matter, but he still wanted to be sure.

‘Yes, Charles,’ Max smiled. ‘You’re not getting rid of me so easily.’

‘Good.’

Because it was supposed to be their last day of driving, Charles decided it was time to get his second Adele CD out of his backpack. He hadn’t told Max he had a second one with him after the incident with the first CD and he saved this one for the last day, just to be a menace.

‘Are you kidding me?’ Max groaned when he spotted the CD cover. ‘Please don’t do that to me, please.’

Charles just laughed and put the CD in anyways.

‘That’s not fair, I’m driving, I’m supposed to be the one to pick the music,’ Max complained as he glared at the radio like that would stop the music from playing.

‘Yeah, well, you wouldn't let me drive, so that’s your problem,’ Charles shrugged, pressing play.

Adele’s voice filled the car and Max sighed comically loud.

‘You’re injured, I would be a really bad friend to let you drive.’

This time, Charles didn’t get insecure about Max calling himself his friend. He knew where they stood, he knew it was for the camera, for the fans.

‘Probably,’ Charles smiled.

He was glad Max didn’t let him drive today. His muscles were still aching and it had hurt to put his shoes on this morning, the bottom of his feet had not liked last night’s adventure.

Max huffed and went to reach for the volume button, but Charles slapped his hand away.

‘Just let me listen for a while, I’m the injured one remember,’ Charles batted his eyelashes at Max when he turned to glare at Charles. ‘It will make me feel better.’

‘To listen to sad, whiny songs?’ Max rolled his eyes. ‘I really don’t get how you can enjoy this music.’

‘Everyone has their own taste, Max, and you should be careful to say things like this or Adele’s army will hunt you down.’

‘Yeah, I’m really scared,’ Max huffed, but he glanced at the camera anyway.

Charles grabbed the map from the dashboard and glanced at the route they had yet to take. It didn’t look like much anymore, but since they couldn’t take the highways it could also be a trick of his eyes.

‘How much longer do you think we have to drive?’ he asked, putting the map back.

‘Why, are you finally sick of me?’

‘Nah, I’m just really craving a good cup of coffee, a hot bath and a really long nap in a comfortable bed.’

Out of view from the camera, Max his hand inched closer to Charles’.

‘You and me both.’

Chapter Text

‘I can’t believe it,’ Charles mumbled, staring at the building in front of them.

It was tall with light baby blue stones and had a big white arch above the front door. The name of the hotel was written above it in gold letters, with beneath it five golden stars.

‘Me either, but we’re really here. We did it,’ Max chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief as well. ‘The hotel looks nice though.’

Charles nodded and looked at the camera on the dashboard.

‘We made it guys, we arrived and we haven’t killed each other,’ he grinned, glancing at Max from the corner of his eyes. ‘We might even be friends now.’

Max rolled his eyes and bumped his shoulder against Charles’.

‘We are, you moron, we’ve been through way too much these last few days not to be.’

Charles totally agreed, it had for sure been a wild couple of days and he would never forget any of them. The memories are forever carved into his brain.

‘So, what now? Do we just go in? Do we call the FIA? I can’t remember if we got instructions on what to do when we arrived,’ Max said, frowning at the entrance of the hotel. ‘Do you still have the envelope we got on the first day?’

Before Charles could reply however, someone knocked on the window on Max’s side of the car. By the look of it, it was someone who worked at the hotel. The man was in a baby blue uniform, the same color as the outside of the hotel and there was a nametag on his blazer.

Max rolled down his window and arched his eyebrows at the man.

‘Yes?’

Charles had to bite his tongue to keep in the giggle that threatened to escape.

‘Mr. Verstappen and Mr. Leclerc?’ the man asked, swallowing when Max just stared at him.

‘That’s us,’ Charles replied leaning over the console so he could look the man in the eye. He rested his forearm on Max’s thighs for support. ‘Do you speak English or Italian?’

The man let out a breath of relief and started talking in rapid Italian, resulting in Max letting out an annoyed sigh. Charles pinched his thigh and ignored the way the muscles twitched under his arm as he tried to focus on what the employee was telling him.

‘There’s a package waiting for us at the front desk,’ Charles told Max when the man smiled at them and turned around to get back inside. ‘They’re finishing up our rooms now, but we’re welcome to refreshments in their restaurant.’

‘Sounds good, let’s go,’ Max said unbuckling his seat belt.

Charles turned to the camera.

‘Thanks for watching and following our adventure you guys, I’m not sure if we’ll activate the stream again after this, so we’ll see you back on our own socials,’ he said, shooting their viewers one last grin before turning the camera off.

‘I’m leaving it in the car,’ he said to Max as he grabbed his suitcase from the backseat.

‘Thank god,’ Max grinned at him, hoisting his weekend bag onto his shoulder. ‘I hope I never have to vlog like that again.’

Charles snorted and followed Max into the hotel.

The inside was just as nice as the outside and it seemed like the color baby blue came back everywhere. The walls, the cushions on the chairs in the lobby, the carpet on the stairs and even on the elevator doors.

‘Not hard to guess the owner’s favorite color,’ Max mumbled as he looked around.

Charles elbowed his side before dragging his suitcase over to the reception desk. A woman in the same baby blue uniform as the man outside, smiled kindly at them.

‘Good afternoon,’ she greeted them, putting two identical boxes with the Formula 1 logo on the counter, along with two keycards. ‘Here are the keys to your rooms, you’re both staying on the second floor and have access to all our facilities.’

She told them some more basic information about the hotel and where to find everything, but Charles was barely listening. He just wanted to get to his room, eat a normal dinner, sleep for ten hours, preferably next to Max and then explore whatever the hotel had to offer.

‘Your rooms should be done in half an hour and someone from the FIA should call you soon for more details,’ the woman smiled. ‘If you have any questions, any of the staff will be happy to help.’

‘Thank you,’ Charles smiled.

He grabbed the box and the key and side by side he and Max walked to the restaurant, choosing a table on the outside restaurant, overlooking the sea.

Charles finally ordered his cappuccino while Max, unsurprisingly, asked for a RedBull.

‘What do you think is in the box?’ Charles asked when he noticed there was a lock on there with numbers. ‘Our phones?’

‘Could be,’ Max shrugged. ‘And our wallets maybe, would be great.’

Charles nodded in agreement and placed the FIA flip phone on the table between them.

‘Guess we’ll find out soon enough.’

It turned out it was indeed their phones and wallets in the box, nothing more, nothing less. A woman named Rita had called them earlier to explain what their options were now and that whenever they wanted to go home, they could just call them to have someone arrange their flights. It was up to them if that was now, tomorrow or a maximum of five days from now. She gave them the codes to their boxes and wished them a nice stay at the hotel.

When Charles finished his cappuccino, the two of them went upstairs to check out their rooms and to their pleasant surprise their rooms were next to each other.

‘Wanna nap in my room after a shower?’ Charles suggested, turning around to look at Max.

‘Or,’ Max started, stepping closer to Charles. ‘We can take a shower together in your room and then nap.’

Charles blinked fast a few times before cocking his head at Max. Their chests almost touched and when Max took another step forwards, he had Charles crowded against his door.

‘Just shower?’ Charles asked, his heartbeat picking up at the thought of being naked with Max.

‘For now,’ Max grinned, pecking Charles' lips. ‘Unless you think you can’t contain yourself?’

Charles narrowed his eyes at Max before blindly holding his key over the sensor on the door. A soft bleep told him the door was open and with his elbow he pushed the handle down while the fingers of his other hand grabbed Max’s shirt and pulled him with him into his room.

Max laughed and followed willingly, grabbing the handle of Charles’ forgotten suitcase to pull it in the room with them before kicking the door closed with his foot.

Charles was on him the moment the door closed, his fingers grabbing onto the back of Max’s neck and pulling him as close to him as possible. He didn’t even give them time to look at the hotel room before crashing their lips together and kissing Max like a starved man.

Max dropped his bag to the floor and wrapped his arms around Charles’ waist, keeping him close. Their noses brushed together as they kissed and Charles could feel Max’s hair tickle on his forehead.

They broke away for air for a second and Charles smiled when he spotted Max’ flushed cheeks and big pupils. He opened his mouth to comment on it, but Max wasn't having any of it and kissed him again, their teeth clashing together.

So much for taking it slow, Charles thought, still smiling against Max’s lips.

They slowly moved through the room, leaving a trail of clothes behind on the floor.

Luckily there was only one other door in the room, so it wasn’t hard to find the bathroom. The tiles felt nice and cold to Charles’ bare feet and he didn’t even hiss like he normally would. His whole body felt like it was on fire and the cold felt good.

‘Max,’ Charles mumbled. ‘Max, if you don’t want to do anything, we have to stop.’ If they didn’t stop now, Charles was sure they would do more than just making out. ‘You wanted to take it slow,’ Charles reminded him, even though every fiber in his body screamed to just keep going.

Max pulled away and rested his forehead against Charles’, breathing loudly against his mouth.

‘I know what I said and I still mean it, but I-’ he panted. ‘We’re not having sex right now, Charles.’

Disappointment crashed through Charles’ body. He knew what Max had said, hell Charles himself stopped because of it, but he had still somehow thought that once they were here, in this position, they would lose themselves in the feeling and something would happen between them.

He ached for Max, he wanted him. So much.

‘No, Charles, look at me,’ Max said when Charles looked away with a frown. ‘Charles,’ Max repeated, grabbing Charles’ chin with his fingers. ‘I’m saying we’re not having sex right now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything at all.’

Charles' eyes widened when he caught Max’s meaning.

‘Are you sure?’ he asked. ‘We don’t have to, because I–,’ he swallowed in his next words.

‘Because you want to? That’s exactly why, baby, I want you to be sure, I want to take it step by step. We made out a lot already, you still feel good about that, don’t you?’ Max asked, hand moving to Charles’ cheek.

‘Yes,’ Charles’ voice sounded hoarse and he cleared his throat. ‘Yes, I do.’

‘Good,’ Max smiled.

And then they were kissing again.

When Charles woke up from his nap, his hair had dried and Max was wrapped around him like a koala bear, his breath tickling against Charles’ collarbone.

The clock on the wall on the opposite side of the room told Charles they slept for nearly three hours and his stomach rumbled, reminding him they hadn’t eaten anything since the nutella sandwiches this morning.

He hoped the hotel had room service because Charles really didn’t feel like leaving the hotel room, or Max’s arms for that matter, but he had a feeling Max would want to go out for dinner as he had talked about craving a gin tonic just before they fell asleep.

Max stirred against him and Charles watched as his eyelashes fluttered and his eyes opened. They almost immediately closed again and Charles smiled at how adorable it somehow looked. He liked watching Max sleep, his face all calm and peaceful.

Charles’ stomach grumbled again and the noise made Max’s eyes flutter open again.

‘Hey,’ Max whispered, nuzzling his face against Charles’ chest like a cat.

‘Hi,’ Charles whispered back, dropping a kiss on the top of Max’ head.

‘We should get up, get something to eat.’

‘Or not,’ Charles replied, bringing his hand up to play with Max’s hair.

Max let out a little purr and clung even closer to Charles’ body than before, tightening his arms and legs. ‘But you’re hungry, gotta feed you.’

Charles chuckled as he dragged his fingers through the blonde locks. ‘We can order room service, stay in bed until tomorrow.’ To his surprise Max nodded against his chest. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Hmhm, I’m comfy.’

‘Comfy enough to skip that gin tonic you were talking about?’

‘Yeah, unless you want to go out?’

‘I’d rather not.’

‘Then stop trying to change my mind and order us some room service.’

‘Fine,’ Charles laughed and he reached for the bedside table where he had seen a little book with the hotel’s information. ‘What are you in the mood for?’

‘You.’

‘Well, you can’t eat me.’

Max lifted his head from Charles' chest, his eyes twinkling as he smirked. ‘Wanna bet I can?’

Charles threw his head back with a groan, exposing his neck to Max, who suddenly seemed wide awake, throwing his weight against Charles to make him fall on his back.

‘Well?’ Max grinned as he climbed on top of Charles, his hands leaning on the mattress on either side of Charles’ head.

When Charles didn’t reply, Max dragged his nose across the skin of his throat and nipped at his ear with his teeth.

‘Okay, you can, but that’s not what we need right now,’ Charles said, the words coming out with an embarrassing pant.

‘Hm you might be right,’ Max chuckled, pressing a kiss to Charles’ jaw before sitting up. ‘Maybe for dessert then.’

‘Or breakfast,’ Charles teased.

‘Or both.’

‘So far for taking it slow.’

‘You ruined me in the shower, it’s your own fault.’

‘My fault?’

‘Yes and that talented tongue of yours.’ Max grinned down at Charles, his fingers tickling his stomach.

Charles choked out a laugh and pushed Max’s fingers away. ‘Says you, but no, food first, then we’ll see.’

Max pouted. ‘Are you going to be the tease now?

‘Sucks, doesn’t it?’

‘Fuck, it does. I’m sorry for doing that to you.’

‘Thank you, we’re still having food first though.’

Max groaned and let himself fall down on top of Charles, ignoring the loud breath of air Charles let out because of it. ‘Fine, food first.’

Chapter Text

After two more days of relaxing, swimming, playing pool and hiding in their rooms to fool around, both Max and Charles were ready to go back home to Monaco. They had the FIA book them a flight for tonight, leaving them with a few hours left of total relaxation.

‘I’m going to miss this,’ Charles said, floating on his back in the pool.

Max, who was leaning against the poolside, laughed softly. ‘Don’t you have a pool in your apartment complex?’

Charles let his body drop in the water and swam towards Max, his eyes scanning their surroundings to see if they were alone, and when he was sure they were, he reached out for Max and pulled him closer to wrap his limbs around him, basically hanging onto Max like a koala.

‘I mean us dummy,’ he chuckled, nuzzling his nose against Max’s neck. ‘Spending time with you, not having to worry about training or races or other people.’

‘Hmhm yeah I will miss that too,’ Max hummed in agreement, wrapping his arms around Charles and moving them around in the water. ‘But we can still spend time together.’

‘Not like this. Let’s face it, we’re both extremely busy and even with everyone knowing we’re friendly now, it will be difficult.’

‘Maybe,’ Max agreed. ‘But I’m sure we’ll find a way to make this work.’

Charles sighed and pulled back so he could look Max in the eye. ‘I hope so.’

He really did hope they could find a way to make whatever they had work, that they could combine it with their busy schedules and that they’d be able to keep it a secret for a while, at least for the first few weeks.

It wasn’t that he was ashamed of Max or his feelings for him, but he wanted time to get more comfortable together, to figure out how it was going to work. He also really wanted to tell people when he himself was ready for it, on his own terms. And maybe, just maybe, he also just wanted to have Max to himself for a little while longer.

‘We will,’ Max promised, tightening his arms around Charles. ‘I waited for you to get your head out of your ass for way too long, and now that I have you, I’m not going to let you go so easily.’ His eyes shined playfully as he squeezed Charles’ ass before leaning in closer, his lips lightly touching Charles’ earlobe. ‘I mean it, you have me, I am yours and you are mine and won’t let anyone ruin this for us.’

Charles felt his entire body warm up at the words and surged forward to press his lips against Max’s, not caring if anyone could see them right now. To hell with keeping it a secret, Max just told him he was his and that was all he wanted right now. To be his.

The flight back to Monaco went by faster than Charles would have liked. He had spent most of the journey sleeping against Max’s shoulder and playing with his long fingers, enjoying their last moments of peace before getting back to the real world.

They made plans to meet up the next day for dinner, and agreed to only tell their families about their new relationship for now. It was possible that their friends were going to find out soon as well, but Charles found that he didn’t really mind. While he wanted to do this in his own time, he didn’t want to hide Max from the people most important to him, and it also made it easier for him to hang out with Max.

The thing Charles was most afraid of, was how their teams would react, or even worse, the FIA. He wasn’t even sure if there was a rule against drivers dating. Sure, it was commonly advised to not date anyone you work with, but that doesn’t only apply to the world of motorsports. Since there has been no driver who’s been out while still on the grid, Charles was sure that there won’t be any regulations against their relationship.

‘I’ll see you tomorrow, try not to miss me too much,’ Max whispered in Charles’ ear when they hugged goodbye in the backside of the taxi they shared.

Max only lived a few blocks away from Charles, so it only made sense for them to take the same car.

It took everything in Charles not to kiss Max before he got out, but the driver had already given them a surprised look when they climbed in the backseat together, and he was not going to let a stranger know about them before his mom did. She’d kill him.

‘Bye,’ Charles smiled, squeezing Max’s side before thanking the driver and getting out of the car.

His bags were already on the sidewalk,and with a last look at the car he shouldered his bag and grasped the handle of his suitcase. The doorman rushed towards him to help, but when Charles gently declined he just held open the door for him with a bright smile.

‘Welcome home, Mister Leclerc.’ the man said.

‘Thank you Eric, have a good night.’ Charles replied, moving past him and towards the elevator.

He pressed the button of his floor and stared at his reflection in the mirror the whole ride up. He didn’t look as different as before the road trip in his opinion, besides the obvious light beard, slightly longer hair that fell over his forehead, but he felt different somehow. Lighter, happier. The only noticeable thing to him was how much brighter his green eyes seemed to be, and maybe the slight flush on his cheeks.

Charles stepped into his dark and empty apartment about one minute later, fully intending to drop his bag, leave it there until the next day and dive straight into his own bed, but when he saw a flicker of light on his balcony he quickly dropped his bag and walked over.

It was dark outside, the moon was only a tiny sliver and barely gave any light, leaving it up to the many stars in the sky. The light of the harbour helped light up the area a little too, but Charles wished those lights could just be turned off. He liked looking at the sky at night, trying to spot both constellations and other figures in the stars, it was something he used to do with his brothers a lot when they were little. Whenever he looked at the stars he felt less alone.

‘Beautiful night, isn’t it?’ Arthur spoke from the bench in the corner of Charles’ balcony.

Charles didn’t startle, he figured the light he’d seen had been his brother’s phone screen. Both his brothers had a key to the apartment, and both of them usually made a habit of stopping by unannounced, especially after work trips where they didn’t accompany him.

‘Hello baby bro,’ Charles said, dropping next to Arthur onto the cushions. ‘What brought you out here in the middle of the night?’

‘Just stargazing,’ Arthur grinned. ‘You know, the usual’

Charles chuckled and grabbed the bottle of diet coke in Arthur’s hands to take a sip. ‘How long have you been sitting here for?’

‘About an hour. How long have you had feelings for Max Verstappen?’

Charles almost spit out his next sip of coke. ‘Quoi?’

‘You heard me,’ Arthur laughed. ‘Everyone that really knows you and saw the stream of your road trip, knows that you fell hard for that guy.’

‘Was I that obvious?’ Charles frowned, leaning further into the pillows.

He didn’t think he had been, he really thought he had been able to hide his feelings quite well when they had their cameras on.

‘To me it was,’ Arthur said softly. ‘Especially when you did that stream to raise more money with your new friends, you know when Max kissed you.’

Oh yes, that moment had really fucked up his brain.

Charles could barely remember that evening, having been so high on feelings and emotions since that exact moment, and then having Max rock his world by actually kissing him in that ugly green bathroom. And telling him he had feelings for Charles since their karting days.

‘But then you got chased by a boar, which Maman will kill you for by the way, and I saw the way the both of you acted afterwards. The little glances and all that. Yeah, pretty obvious for everyone with eyes I guess.’

Well there went his plan to keep it a secret for a while.

By the time the after party rolled around, which was three days after they got back from Italy, Charles had seen Max twice, talked to him on the phone for over eight hours, kissed him for over three, met with his family, got an earful from his Maman for his little adventure with the boar and was harassed by the press, his fans and his family about his relationship with Max.

Everyone clearly knew something was going on between them and Charles neither confirmed nor denied it, he simply kept his mouth shut. Except with his family of course, they were ready to welcome Max with open arms already.

The suit Charles was wearing for the night was dark blue, a shade darker than the button up he wore underneath it, and even though it had only been fifteen minutes since putting it on, Charles already wanted to rip it off his body.

There was something in the neck of his button up that kept prickling against his skin, creating a very annoying and sickening feeling. He’d tried to locate whatever it was, but since he couldn’t see what he felt, being without a mirror and unable to take it off in the car he was currently in, he just had to suffer until he could find a bathroom at the party venue.

Maybe he’d ask Max or Pierre to look for him, so he didn’t have to take it off all the way, even though Max would probably try to coax him into taking it off anyways. The sneaky bastard. Pierre was the safer bet, but Charles had a feeling his best friend was going to be late.

Charles: Will you meet me in the bathroom once you get there?

Max: Did you miss me that much? (;

Charles: I need you to look at my shirt, no funny business

Max: Don’t steal my line

Charles: What line?

Max: No funny business, that’s what I usually say to you (:

Charles: F U

Max: Gladly

Charles rolled his eyes at his phone screen and pressed the green phone button to call Max.

‘Not funny?’ Max said when he answered.

‘That’s not the point,’ Charles said, tugging at his collar. ‘There’s something in my shirt that’s bugging me.'

Max was silent for a second or two, before carefully asking; ‘Is that a code for something?’

‘What? No, there’s seriously something sharp on the inside of my collar and it’s driving me insane.’

‘Okay, okay, I’ll come find you, I think I’m almost there,’ Max said and just as he did, Charles’ car pulled up to the venue where the FIA hosted the party.

‘I’m here now, I’ll text you where the bathrooms are,’ Charles whispered, his finger hovering over the red phone button to cancel the call.

‘Wait,’ Max all but yelled, stopping Charles from ending their call.

‘What is it?’ Charles asked as he stepped out of the car, smiling at the guy that drove him and nodding in thanks. ‘Is something wrong?’

‘No, nothing’s wrong baby,’ Max chuckled. ‘I just think you look very good in this particular shade of blue.’

The line went dead then and Charles frowned in confusion, staring at his screen for a moment before putting his phone away, and focused on the people around him. He recognized some of them, but only when he turned around he realized what Max had meant.

There, about three meters away from him, was Max. He was leaning against the black cab that brought him, while the driver talked to someone else, and he looked absolutely edible in his black suit. The jacket fit perfectly and showed off his broad shoulders, while the pants hugged his thighs like they were a little too tight for him. Charles didn’t mind at all.

He smiled at Max and gave him a little wave. Butterflies erupted in his stomach when Max grinned back at him and made a motion for him to come over.

‘Charles!’ Carlos’ voice sounded from behind him. ‘Mate, you have no idea how good it is to see you.’

A little disappointed to be kept away from Max, Charles turned around to face his teammate.

Carlos, great to see you in one piece,’ he joked, clasping his hands with the Spaniard who chuckled at his words.

‘Yeah, well, Pierre and I have a truce going on,’ Carlos smiled. ‘I’m glad he’s not my team mate all year around though.’

‘He’s not that bad once you get to know him, isn’t he?'

Carlos smiled again and nodded. ‘Yeah.’

Okay, that was curious. Never in their years of being teammates had Carlos smiled about anything to do with Pierre. Had they really become friends on this trip?

Someone else called for Carlos then, and with a ‘see you inside’ his teammate turned around to tug Lando in a big bear hug.

Turning around quickly, Charles let his eyes wander over the parking lot, searching for Max. He wasn’t in the same spot as before and he didn’t see him anywhere else either, maybe he already went inside. Chances were that Daniel found him and dragged him to the bar.

Getting out his phone to text Max he was coming inside too, he was too distracted to notice someone approaching him from behind.

‘Boo,’ a voice whispered in his ear, startling him so much that he jumped and almost dropped his phone, while his other hand went to his heart.

‘Merdé,’ he cursed, turning around to a grinning Max Verstappen, his bright blue eyes sparkling in the fading sunlight.

‘Sorry,’ Max said, but the smile on his face told Charles he wasn’t sorry at all.

‘Sure,’ he mumbled, but he couldn’t help smiling back.

It was hard not to smile when Max smiled, his whole face lit up and he’d get those cute crinkles next to his eyes. Charles loved it when Max smiled.

'Ready to go in?’ Max asked, before leaning in a little further and whispering; ‘And go to the bathroom?’

‘You do know it really wasn’t code for anything right?’ Charles laughed as they started walking towards the entrance, waving at Alex and George who just got out of their car.

‘Yes, but only because I can tell you’re uncomfortable.’

‘You can?’

‘You’re keeping your neck forward like a giraffe or a goat, or whatever animal does that, and I could see how red the back of your neck was when I walked over.’

Charles hit Max's arm. ‘Did you just compare me to a goat?’

‘I would never, you’re more like a-,’ Max fell silent, clearly thinking. ‘Whatever animal is the most beautiful.’

‘Awwww, isn’t that the cutest thing ever,’ Daniel’s voice sounded from behind them and soon Charles felt a warm arm being wrapped around him as Daniel squeezed himself between him and Max. ‘I knew there was something going on,’ the Australian then whispered, grinning at the both of them.

‘Better hold your tongue for now Danny, we want to tell people ourselves,’ Max said, clapping his former teammate on his back with a grin.

‘Sure Maxy, whatever you want,’ Daniel grinned back. ‘But you do know that almost everyone either knows already or suspects it, right?’

Charles groans and Max chuckles.

‘Yes, we’ve been told we were much more obvious than we thought we were,’ Max nodded. ‘But that doesn’t take away the fact that neither me nor Charles has confirmed anything.’

While Charles had spent his first evening back from their trip talking to Arthur, Max had a similar conversation with his sister, only he had it over facetime instead of stargazing on his balcony.

‘When will you?’ Daniel asked, leading the two of them into a big spacious room that was filled with large round tables with fancy golden tablecloths.

They were supposed to have dinner with the FIA, all the teams and some people from the foundation they collected money for. After dinner everyone that wanted could move to another room in the venue for dancing and drinking, and if Charles remembered correctly, Martin Garrix, a close friend of Max, was going to be their DJ for the evening.

‘None of your business, Danny,’ Max said, playfully pushing his friend away from them. ‘You’ll find out with the rest of the people.’

Daniel pouted, but when he spotted Lando coming in with Carlos, he bounced over to them instead.

‘Hey,’ Max smiled, his blue eyes focussed on Charles.

‘Hi,’ Charles smiled back.

‘Have I told you yet how good you look tonight?

‘You mean when you compared me to a goat?’

‘Doesn’t goat also mean Greatest Of All Time?’ Max oppered, looking, grinning at Charles.

Charles rolled his eyes, but couldn’t suppress a laugh. ‘Yes, but that wasn’t what you meant.’

‘No,’ Max agreed with a chuckle. ‘But you really do look handsome tonight, I like this color on you a lot.’

Charles filed that little piece of information away in a corner of his brain. He was definitely going to fill his closet with more blue, even if it might spark some rumors of him going to Red Bull. Fans were a little crazy like that.

‘I’m a little disappointed you didn’t wear any red for me,’ Charles teased, knowing full well that Max would never fall for that.

To his surprise, Max blushed a little before squaring his shoulders and lifting his chin. ‘Who said I’m not?’

Charles let his eyes roam over Max’s body, once again loving the sight of how well the suit showed off Max’s form. There wasn’t a single red thread noticeable on his outfit, which could only mean one thing.

Either Max was wearing red socks or red boxers, and knowing Max it was probably the latter.

‘I didn’t know you owned anything other than white and blue,’ Charles said, his eyes moving towards the waistband of Max’s suit pants.

‘I didn’t,’ Max admitted. ‘But I may have done some shopping after we got back from our trip.’

Charles raised his eyebrows and lifted his eyes to look at Max. ‘You hate shopping.’

‘I didn’t say anything about actually going to a shop,’ Max chuckled as he accepted two glasses of champagne from the waiter that passed them, giving one of them to Charles. Of course he shopped online for whatever underwear he was wearing. ‘Don’t expect anything fancy, I just wanted to get something red.’

‘And you couldn’t buy socks?’ Charles teased, secretly loving the fact that Max related the color red to him and had wanted to get it. It did something weird to his brain and body. ‘Or a hoodie?’

‘Socks are boring, Charles, and I couldn’t very well show up in a hoodie tonight now could I?’

Charles was about to open his mouth when a woman started to talk into the microphone and announced that in about fifteen minutes, the presentation was about to start.

‘I hope you’re all able to find your seat, but if you have any trouble, please ask the lovely young man at the door to help you find it,’ she said, waving her hand towards the entrance of the room. ‘Dinner will be served in approximately forty-five minutes.’

Charles looked at the table they were closest to and noticed that in front of every plate there was a card with a name in neat golden letters.

‘Do you still need me to fix your shirt?’ Max asked, tugging on Charles’ suit jacket to get his attention.

For some reason, talking to Max just now had made him forget about the itchiness in his neck, but now that Max mentioned it, he felt it come back in full force and he grimaced.

Max noticed and nodded. ‘Alright, come on.’

They hurried towards the bathroom, ignored the curious stares they got and only stopped to say hello to Pierre who had just arrived.

‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,’ Pierre yelled after them.

Charles wisely didn’t respond and followed Max into the men’s room, immediately taking off his suit jacket and turning around so his back was facing Max.

‘Please find the little bugger that’s terrorizing me,’ he begged, tugging back the collar of his shirt so Max could take a look.

Max’s cold fingers touched Charles’ neck briefly as he grabbed onto the fabric and let his finger slide over the neckline of the shirt.

‘I feel what you mean, there’s something sharp here,’ Max mumbled, taking his phone out of his pocket to put on his flashlight. ‘I think it’s the piece of plastic the tag used to be on.’

'Can you get it?’

‘I think so, can you bend your knees a little?'

Charles blinked at the request, but did what Max asked and bent his knees, bringing his neck just under Max’s chin. ‘Can you reach it like this?’

As an answer, Max leaned forward, his nose touching the back of Charles’ neck and while he held the collar in place, he seemed to bite off the annoying piece of plastic, before leaning back and smoothing the collar back in its place against Charles’ neck.

‘Did you just bite it off?’ Charles asked, turning around to look at Max, his eyes lowering to Max’s mouth.

Max grinned and nodded. ‘I sure did, baby.’

Baby.>

God, Charles has never been a fan of pet names, but hearing them out of Max’ mouth made him weak.

'Thank you,’ he said, trying to sound unaffected, and by the look on Max’s face he failed miserably.

Max stepped closer and placed his hands on Charles’ waist. ‘You’re very welcome. Now, what’s my reward?’

Charles didn’t waste a second, wrapped his arms around Max’s neck and pulled him close for a kiss.

Chapter Text

All the tables were filled with people when Charles and Max sneaked back into the large dining room, and the presentation had already started. Luckily for them, the lights were dimmed and they had a table on the side of the room, so not many of their co-workers or team members even noticed them being late, as they all had their attention on the blonde woman from before, who was telling everyone what a success the road trips have been and how much money had been raised.

Daniel, who was at their table, wiggled his eyebrows when the two of them sat down, and Pierre grinned at them before raising his glass of champagne to his lips.

'Our lovely people from the media department have made an after-movie with a collection of moments that happened during the road trips, so I suggest you sit back, enjoy your champagne and get ready to see some of the highlights of the driver's road trips,' the woman on stage said with such a big smile, that Charles immediately got scared to see what moments they picked.

He was pretty sure there were going to be some humiliating and funny moments in there, both of him, but also of his fellow drivers, especially when he saw Pierre next to him frown at the screen where the video had started.

'I'm going to see myself be chased by that stupid boar, aren't I?' Charles whispered to Max as soft music played and showed everyone in the parking lot getting the keys to their cars.

'Probably,' Max agreed, placing his hand on Charles' knee as if to comfort him. 'I'm sure the others have had something like that happen to them as well. Lando, maybe. but knowing him he would have probably run away from a chicken.'

Charles chuckled at the image and crossed his fingers for a scene like that. He needed to not be the only one feeling embarrassed, even though he was pretty sure that he was not the only person that would have run away from the scary boar.

The first pair they showed was Lando and Lewis as they jammed to a song on the radio. Lando played all kinds of air instruments while headbanging like a madman, making his curls bounce around, while Lewis loudly sang along and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.

There were multiple shots of Daniel and George clinking their glasses of wine against each other, there were at least ten of them and Charles couldn't help but be impressed that Daniel managed to get free wine for them that often.

Alex and Oscar were petting cats and donkeys.

There was a video of Valterri teaching Yuki how to set up a tent -and Yuki storming off halfway, cursing and throwing his hands up in the air- and how to make a fire.

Pierre groaned when he appeared on screen, walking down the side of the road while Carlos slowly followed him in their car, yelling at him to get back inside. Pierre turned around with his arms crossed, yelled something in French that made Charles chuckle and turned back around to continue walking.

'Which day was that?' Charles whispered to Pierre when they showed Fernando chasing some sheep off the road so Logan could drive their car through a very narrow road.

'Day two, it got better after this,' Pierre replied with a grimace. 'We talked out our differences.'

Charles wanted to ask more, but then he heard Max and him singing You Belong With Me and he wanted nothing more than to crawl under the table and hide. He had totally forgotten about this moment.

'Nice performance,' Daniel grinned, dipping his glass into their direction and Charles quickly took a sip of his own champagne.

Max tightened his fingers around Charles' knee and leaned towards him to whisper in his ear. 'I liked the moment after the singing much more.'

Their first kiss.

Yes, Charles had liked that too. Very much so.

The after movie showed many more moments, Lewis chasing after a raccoon, Charles climbing the tree, Esteban getting soaked in the rain as he twirled in circles, George swimming in a beautiful lake, Zhou and Nico spotting a wolf in the wild, and much much more.

It was clear to Charles that everyone had fun, while also struggling to read the map, have car troubles and be chased by animals.

At the end of the video they showed Alex and Oscar arriving at their destination and receiving a medal and spa giftcard for winning the contest.

'A giftcard? That's what we were racing around for?' Max laughed.

'So lame,' Pierre agreed.

Charles shook his head at them. 'We were racing around to raise money for the kids.'

Both Max and Pierre had the decency to look at least a little guilty.

'But still, they shouldn't have given a giftcard then, just the medal would have been fine.' Pierre continued. 'I mean, why make us go on a trip for charity and then reward us with money on a card instead of donating that too?'

Before anyone could comment on that, the lights went back on and multiple waiters appeared with trays of appetizers and more drinks.

Loud music thrummed through Charles' body as he danced with Pierre and Carlos, enjoying that both his friends were finally being civil towards each other. Lando and George had just arrived with a new round of drinks for everyone, and Charles was already well on his way to feeling tipsy. So far it had been a really fun night and while it was long from over, Charles wondered if he could get Max to agree to come home with him tonight.

They hadn't slept in the same bed since their last night in Italy, and he really wanted to curl up against Max tonight, to kiss him silly before going to sleep and to wake up in the morning spooning against Max's toned warm back.

Max had disappeared to Martin's DJ booth about fifteen minutes ago, Daniel in tow, and Charles could see the both of them moving to the music behind the Dutch DJ, occasionally leaning closer to each other to yell something. As if he could feel Charles' eyes on him, Max turned his gaze to where Charles was and his lips curled up into a beautiful smile.

Pierre and Carlos were watching him when he looked back at them, and the both of them had a knowing grin on their face.

'You're not fooling anyone Calamar,' Pierre yelled over the music.

'I'm not doing anything?' Charles protested, but his eyes wandered back to the DJ booth.

'You're basically undressing him with your eyes,' Carlos' eyes sparkled with delight as he looked between Max and Charles.

'I am not!'

Pierre wrapped one arm around Charles and threw his other one in the air as it moved to the beat of the music. 'You so are, now stop thinking so much, enjoy the party and go dance with your man when he's back.'

Charles was about to protest again when Pierre let go of him and Lando bounced over to him, a glass of coke in his hands and a little cocktail umbrella behind his ear.

'I love that they asked Martin to play tonight,' he said, his voice already sounding hoarse from yelling over the music.

Charles smiled at his friend and clapped his shoulder. 'Why don't you join him for a bit, show us some of that DJ Lando magic?'

Lando laughed, throwing his head back. 'And ask Max to come back to you, is that it?'

'No! Why can't you all focus on yourselves,' Charles replied, slowly getting annoyed that everyone seemed to make everything he said about Max. 'I just thought you might like it, that's all.'

'Mate, I haven't DJ'ed in months,' Lando said, eying him strangely. 'I was just teasing, but maybe I will go see Martin.'

Charles sipped his drink and watched him disappear into the crowd and towards the DJ booth. A small part of him wanted to follow, wanted to climb up there as well, see the crowd from that point of view, watch as Martin did his thing, and maybe, just maybe he also wanted to be closer to Max again. He didn't know if that made him pathetic or just a lovesick guy who wanted to spend every minute he could with the guy he liked.

'Go,' Pierre mouthed when Charles looked at his friend.

Charles hesitated for a moment, but then he threw his drink back and followed in the direction Lando had just disappeared in, deliberately not looking up to the booth to see if Max noticed him coming over.

He ignored the curious looks and people trying to talk to him, just giving them his nicest smile, while making a beeline for where Max was. He got rid of his empty glass before climbing the steps and coming face to face with Daniel, who grinned at him.

'You're too late,' the Australian said, placing his hands on Charles' shoulders and turning him around. 'He went to the bar to get drinks and come find you again.'

Charles swore under his breath and turned around to look at the bar, spotting Max almost immediately. He was leaning against the bar, his eyes searching the crowd, probably for him cause soon a frown appeared on his forehead.

'Go on,' Daniel laughed. 'Kiss that frown away, it will give him wrinkles.'

Charles rolled his eyes, but hurried off the steps again and towards the bar, not wanting to miss Max while he went in search of him. He smiled politely to a few people on the way there and got to the bar when Max just accepted his drink.

'Boo,' Charles said from behind him, lightly touching Max's back with his fingers before sliding into view next to him and leaning against the bar.

Max's face lit up at the sight of him. 'Hey, I've been looking for you.'

'Yeah Danny Ric told me,' Charles said as he took Max's drink from his hands to take a sip. 'Vodka Red Bull? Really?' he laughed, handing the drink back.

'I like it,' Max shrugged, taking a sip of his own. 'Do you want anything?'

'Do they make cocktails, you think?'

'You want a Moscow Mule?' Max grinned, signaling the bartender he wanted to order something else.

Charles nodded and watched as Max leaned over the bar again to yell his order at the bartender. He also took this opportunity to check him out again, letting his eyes roam over his muscled body and imagining touching him.

He wished he could touch him, he wished he could get close to him and pull him against his body. He wanted to bury his head in Max's neck and breathe in the scent of his cologne. He wanted to kiss him in front of everybody, slip his tongue into his mouth and claim him. He wanted to–

'You know, if you keep eyefucking me like that, we won't be a secret much longer,' Max chuckled, handing Charles a cold glass of his favorite alcoholic beverage.

Charles felt his cheeks heat up and quickly took a sip of his drink, enjoying the burn in his throat.

'Everyone already seems to know anyway.'

Max watched him, his head cocking to the side. 'Do you mind?'

'I don't think so,' Charles shrugged. 'I kind of want to keep you to myself a little longer, but I also don't like not being able to touch you.'

'Like you were just imagining?' Max teased, stepping closer to him.

If Charles' cheeks weren't already red, they would have been now.

'Maybe.'

'Well,' Max smiled. 'I was thinking..'

'Yeah?' Charles stepped closer as well.

'I could come home with you later.'

It was like a whole zoo trampled Charles' stomach, or at least a whole swarm of butterflies. 'I had kinda hoped you would,' he admitted.

'Good,' Max smiled and for a moment it looked like he was going to kiss Charles. They were close enough already, only a few inches between their chests, but it was too soon to be so public.

Charles looked at the DJ booth and then back at Max. 'Wanna go back to Martin? I kind of want to see how he works.'

Max beamed at him, placed his big hand on the small of Charles' back and started leading him through the crowd.

Three hours and about five drinks later, Charles was in the backseat of a cab, his head on Max' shoulder as he fought against sleep. His eyes and body felt heavy and the warmth of Max's body, combined with his scent, made him even more sleepy.

'Keep your eyes open, baby, I'm not carrying you upstairs,' Max pinched Charles' side. 'We're almost there.'

'Why? You're strong, you can carry me,' Charles whined, lifting his head up from Max's shoulder.

He saw the familiar building looming outside the car window and sat up a little straighter, mentally preparing himself that he had to get out of the car and into the building. He was extra glad Max was coming with him now.

Max paid the driver and got out of the car first, before turning around to pull Charles out of the backseat, allowing him to lean against him.

'My legs are so heavy,' Charles complained, glaring at his legs as if that would make the feeling go away.

'I know, baby, that's what happens when you down five drinks and can't really handle your liquor that well,' Max chuckled.

'Hey!' Charles protested.

'It's okay, I would be the same if I had just a few more drinks,' Max assured him, opening the door to Charles' building.

Eric was at his desk again, and looked up when the two of them stumbled inside and Charles almost lost his balance. Max tightened his grip on Charles' waist and moved Charles' arm so it was around his neck.

'Good evening Mister Leclerc, Mister Verstappen,' the doorman greeted, smiling kindly at them.

Charles waved at the man, earning a chuckle from him in return.

'Do you need some help Mister Verstappen?'

'If you could call the elevator for me, that would be lovely, thank you,' Max said as he moved to the big silver doors, pulling Charles along with him.

'Lovely,' Charles repeated. 'Simply, simply lovely.'

Max and Eric grinned at each other over Charles' head, before Max moved him into the elevator and Eric leaned in to press the button to Charles' floor.

'Thank you, Eric, have a good night.'

'You too, Mister Verstappen, I trust you'll look after him.'

The doors of the elevator closed and Charles cuddled even further against Max while letting out a content sigh.

'I'm glad you came home with me,' he mumbled, nuzzling his nose against Max' neck. 'I missed you.'

'I've been by your side almost all evening,' Max chuckled, pressing his lips against Charles' forehead.

Charles frowned. He knew that and he had loved that, but it wasn't what he had meant. He missed Max at home, when he was alone, especially at night. In the short amount of time they spent together, he had gotten so used to his presence, that his apartment just felt too silent and empty now when he was home alone.

Charles lifted his heavy head to look at Max. 'No, no, I mean I missed you when you weren't with me. At home.'

His answer made Max smile. 'Me too, Charles, me too.'

The doors of the elevator opened with a soft 'ping' and Max led Charles towards his front door. 'Can you open your door for me, babe?' Max asked when Charles didn't move to get his keys.

'Oh,' Charles blinked. 'Yes.' He felt around in his pockets for his keys and handed them to Max, not even bothering to try himself, he would probably drop them anyway.

Max made quick work of the lock and ushered Charles into his dark hallway, before helping him out of his suit jacket and getting his own off as well, carefully hanging them onto the coat rack while Charles leaned against the wall and watched him.

'Come on, sleepyhead, let's get you to bed,' Max smiled, taking Charles' hand and leading him further into the apartment. 'You got to tell me where the bedroom is though.'

'Why? Got any funny business planned?' Charles giggled, pulling onto Max's hand to make him stop walking. The movement made him almost lose his balance again and another giggle escaped his mouth. 'Oops.'

Max laughed and gathered Charles up into his arms to keep him steady. 'I don't think you're up to any funny business tonight, babe.'

Charles pouted, leaning heavily against Max's strong chest. 'I am.'

'Alright, work with me here,' Max said, moving his hands under Charles' ass so he could lift him up. One arm was strongly wrapped around Charles' waist, while the other worked to get Charles' arms around his neck. 'Wrap your legs around me, baby,' he instructed and Charles did just that, clinging onto Max's upper body like a koala bear.

'Second door on your left,' Charles said, nuzzling his nose into Max's neck again, before pressing a kiss to the skin where his neck met his shoulder.

With a few big strides they made it to Charles' bedroom, which was way too bright for Charles' eyes and pounding head when Max turned on the lights.

'Ugh,' Charles moaned, squeezing his eyes shut.

'Sorry,' Max said, untangling Charles' legs from his waist so he could let him down. 'I need the light for a little while to get a feel of the room, but when you're undressed I can turn it off again okay?'

Charles nodded eagerly and kept his eyes shut as he started to unbutton his shirt, or trying to at least, it wasn't as easy as he thought he would. He was just about to rip the shirt open in frustration when Max batted away his hands.

'Here, let me help.'

Max made quick work of the buttons and pushed the fabric off of Charles' shoulders, letting it fall to the floor while he continued with Charles' pants and pushed those down his legs as well. He kneeled down to help Charles step out of them and take off his socks as well.

'All done, time to get under the covers,' Max gently moved Charles to the bed and while he wanted to protest, he also really wanted to get off his feet. 'You get cozy and I'll be there soon, just have to use the bathroom.'

Charles nodded and got comfortable, enjoying the feeling of his soft sheets against his skin and how his pillow felt like the softest cloud. Sleep tugged on him but he fought to stay awake, to wait for Max to get back. He could do that, he wanted to, he had too.

He startled awake when the mattress moved, and he lifted his head in confusion. 'Max?'

'I'm here,' Max shushed, sliding under the covers and reaching for Charles. 'I'm here.'

Charles sighed happily and cuddled up against Max's body, tangling their legs together and pressing his cheek against Max's chest so he could listen to his heartbeat as it lulled him back to sleep.

This was what he wanted every night from now on.

'Sweet dreams, Charles,' Max whispered, kissing the top of his head.

'G'night,' Charles mumbled sleepily, his entire body already being so heavy with sleep that it was impossible to move and kiss Max goodnight.

He would just have to make up for it in the morning.

Chapter Text

Charles always loved racing in Italy.

He loved the country, the tifosi, their love for Ferrari, and being here always made him feel different, special, like royalty.

This weekend though, was even more special to him and it had nothing to do with how much he loved being here.

Last week, after the Dutch Grand Prix, Charles and Max had decided to come out to the public. It didn’t come as a surprise to a lot of people, and he had been overwhelmed by the support and love their fans had shown them. The press had mixed feelings about the news, as did the FIA, but Charles really couldn’t care less. He was happy, Max was happy, their families were happy, and that was all that mattered, at least for now.

He was sure it would give him trouble in the future, but at this moment and this day, he didn’t care. This weekend was his first time racing as an openly gay driver, who was in a relationship with Max Verstappen, and as a cherry on top, this weekend was also the weekend that the kids of the foundation they did the roadtrip for, the one that brought him and Max together, were coming to watch them race.

‘Babe, are you ready?’ Max poked his head into the bathroom where Charles had just finished fixing his hair.

They were about to go to the track to meet up with the kids before the race, and he knew his hair was going to get ruined by his helmet later that day anyways, but he wanted to make some effort for the children.

‘Coming,’ Charles took one last look at the mirror and nodded happily at his reflection.

Max shot him an amused look. ‘You do know–’

Charles interrupted Max by kissing him, successfully silencing whatever he was going to say. Max was quick to react, wrapping his arm around Charles’ waist to pull him close, while his free hand curled around the back of Charles’ neck. It was all it took for Charles to melt against him and let Max plunder his mouth, his legs felt like jelly and for a moment he wished they could just lock themselves in their room for another hour, but then he remembered the kids who were probably already waiting for them.

‘We should go,’ he whispered against Max’s lips. ‘We’ll pick this back up after the race.’

‘After I kick your ass you mean,’ Max grinned, pressing one more kiss against Charles’ mouth.

Charles pinched Max’s side. ‘We’ll see, maybe I’ll let you eat some red Ferrari dust.’

Max laughed and grabbed his backpack from the floor. ‘Sure, baby, dream on.’

Charles pretended to be offended and huffed, crossing his arms as he frowned at Max. ‘Not everyone can have a rocketship, you try driving this damned tractor.’

‘You could have a rocketship,’ Max winked, ignoring Charles’ pout. ‘I’m sure Christian offered you to fly next to me a few times already.’

He had, but Charles had been stupid and too loyal to Ferrari to accept.

‘We wouldn’t have been able to date if we were teammates,’ Charles said, not willing to admit to Max that he was right, even though he probably already knew he was.

Max opened the hotel door for Charles and slapped his ass when he walked through. ‘We would have found a way, now hurry up, we’re late.’

‘This is so cool!’ Jake beamed from the cockpit of Charles’ car as his tiny hands grabbed onto the steering wheel like he was actually driving.

The boy was six years old and had followed Charles around like a puppy for the last thirty minutes, asking question after question and gushing about how happy he was to be here today every two minutes or so.

It made Charles’ heart hurt that such a happy kid was this sick, and he wished he could do more for the boy than let him sit in his car and show him the garage.

‘Do you ever forget which button does what?’ Jake asked, carefully moving his fingertips over the buttons on the wheel.

Charles laughed and shook his head. ‘Not anymore, using them is like muscle memory, I don’t have to think about it anymore and could probably operate every single one of the buttons in my sleep.’

‘Cool!’ Jake gushed again, his blue eyes sparkling behind his glasses that kept sliding down his nose. ‘Will you tell me what they do?’

Charles nodded, leaning over the side of the car and tried to explain as best as he could what every button was used for. Jake listened closely and nodded like he knew just what Charles was talking about.

‘Jake!’ a girl’s voice called out from the other end of the garage.

Both Charles and Jake looked up to see Max entering the garage with a little girl in his arms. She had light blonde hair, green eyes and such a bright smile that Charles’ heart clenched again, especially when he saw the feeding tube in her nose.

‘Kylie, look, I’m driving a Ferrari!’ Jake yelled excitedly, waving to the girl.

Kylie giggled and wiggled in Max’s arms to be let down. Max sank to his knees to let her go and she immediately ran towards Charles, her braids flying behind her.

‘Hi, I’m Kylie,’ she smiled up at him, holding out her hand. ‘Can I sit in the car too?’

Charles laughed and shook her little hand, meeting Max’s eyes over her head. ‘Sure you can, but you have to ask Jake if he’s ready to come out yet.’

Kylie turned towards Jake and the two of them started talking a mile a minute.

‘Unfortunately the mechanics were busy with my car so I couldn’t let her sit inside,’ Max explained, moving to stand next to Charles and brushing their fingers together in greeting. ‘If I’m not allowed to be here, you can send us away.’

‘Nonsense,’ Fred’s voice sounded from behind them. ‘It’s for the kids, just don’t touch anything and don’t come too close to our car and our computers.’

‘Thank you,’ Max smiled, shaking Fred’s hand before turning his attention to the children again.

Fred winked at Charles and nodded his head to someone in the door opening of the garage. It was only then that Charles noticed the cameras and it all made sense why Max had been allowed inside so easily.

Shaking his head, Charles turned his attention to the kids again as well, they were more important than the stupid Netflix crew anyway.

The race didn’t turn out the way Charles had hoped, he should have been on that podium with Max, celebrating and spraying champagne, but Carlos had beaten him to it.

Jake, Kylie and the other kids didn’t seem to care he wasn’t on the podium, they cheered just as loud for him then they did for Max when he came to say hi after media duties. They asked question after question about the race and some of the children had even made them drawings.

Their enthusiasm warmed his heart and healed his soul a little, making him forget about not getting the result he wanted for just a little while. He loved their innocence and the way they thought about life. Even though they were sick, most of them were very positive and full of life, it was inspiring really.

A little girl named Daphne had whispered into his ear that if he could survive a scary boar, he could survive anything, and it had been strangely heartwarming and eye opening.

‘Will you visit us in the hospital soon?’ Jake asked when it was time to say goodbye. His blue eyes were tiny with exhaustion, but they looked hopeful and Charles couldn’t do anything but agree.

‘Sure buddy, we’ll try and visit okay? And maybe when you get better, you can come to another race.’

He hoped with all his heart that all the kids here today would beat this horrible disease, because each and everyone of them deserved to live a full happy and healthy life.

Jake’s face lit up and he threw his little arms around Charles, hugging him tight.

‘Thank you Mister Charles, I had the best day,’ he whispered, before letting go and running towards the bus that waited to bring him back home.

Max appeared to Charles’ right side and wrapped his arm around his waist, squeezing his hip. The other drivers gathered around them as well, and as a group they waved goodbye to the children that may or may have not changed their lives, or at least their look of it, today.

‘I feel–,’ Lewis frowned, bending down to scratch Roscoe behind his ears. ‘Privileged, to be healthy, and guilty to not be able to do anything more for these kids.’

‘Me too,’ George agreed.

‘We can keep donating for cancer research and try to organize more days like this,’ Alex said, putting his hands on his hips. ‘The FIA can’t really argue with that, right? It looks good for their and our image.’

Multiple sounds of agreement sounded all around them and it was this moment that made Charles even more glad that they had been thrown into this whole road trip event.

Not only did he get a boyfriend out of it, but he also felt closer to his fellow drivers than ever before, and they had been able to help this foundation and many sick children. It was definitely worth the hassle it had been in the beginning and he would do it again if he could.

A few hours later Charles and Max were back into a car together.

The both of them were exhausted from the long day and absolutely drained from their last media duties. The energy the kids had given them had long left their bodies and Charles was seriously regretting not staying in Italy for another night.

‘We should have just stayed at the hotel another night,’ Max voiced his thoughts. ‘Or at least booked one on the way home.’

‘The area here is so beautiful, we could have made a fun day out of tomorrow to explore,’ Charles added. ‘We could have gone on a run at sunrise and–’

Max whipped his head into Charles’ direction and pulled a face. ‘What? After race day I'm not getting up before sunrise, you maniac.’

‘You never like to get up before sunrise.’ Charles teased.

‘As any normal human being shouldn’t.’

‘You’re not normal, babe,’ Charles continued to tease and he reached over to squeeze Max’s thigh. ‘No Formula 1 racing driver is normal.’

‘Still,’ Max sighed. ‘Neither is getting up at the crack of dawn.’

‘Well, we’re not going to anyways because we’re driving home,’ Charles chuckled. ‘Just let me know if you want to switch, okay?’

Max nods and for a while they drive in silence, the radio softly playing Vampire by Olivia Rodrigro, and Charles smiled to himself at the memory of the singing along to the song during one of the first days of their road trip.

‘Hey Charles?’ Max broke the silence. ‘We could always sleep in the car again?’

Charles laughed and leaned over the console to kiss Max’s cheek.

‘How about you just shut up and drive.’